hich has
been slow) from that hour. I am still feeble, and liable to sudden
outbursts of causeless rage and demoniacal gloom, but I shall be better
presently. What a thing it is, that we can't be always innocently merry
and happy with those we like best without looking out at the back
windows of life! Well, one day perhaps--after a long night--the blinds
on that side of the house will be down for ever, and nothing left but
the bright prospect in front.

Concerning supper-toast (of which I feel bound to make some mention),
you did, as you always do, right, and exactly what was most agreeable to
me.

My love to your excellent husband (I wonder whether he and the
dining-room have got to rights yet!), and to the jolly little boys and
the calm little girl. Somehow, I shall always think of Lord Spencer as
eternally walking up and down the platform at Rugby, in a high chill
wind, with no apparent hope of a train--as I left him; and somehow I
always think of Rockingham, after coming away, as if I belonged to it
and had left a bit of my heart behind, which it is so very odd to find
wanting twenty times a day.

Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, faithfully yours, and his.

[Sidenote: The same.]

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Tuesday Night, Jan. 28th, 1851._

MY DEAR, DEAR MRS. WATSON,

I presume you mean Mr. Stafford and Mr. Stopford to pay Wilson (as I
have instructed him) a guinea each? Am I right? In that just case I
still owe you a guinea for _my_ part. I was going to send you a
post-office order for that amount, when a faint sense of absurdity
mantled my ingenuous visage with a blush, and I thought it better to owe
you the money until we met. I hope it may be soon!

I believe I may lay claim to the mysterious inkstand, also to a volume
lettered on the back, "Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea, II.," which I
left when I came down at Christmas. Will you take care of them as
hostages until we effect an exchange?

Charley went back in great spirits, threatening to write to George. It
was a very wet night, and John took him to the railway. He said, on his
return: "Mas'r Charles went off very gay, sir. He found some young
gen'lemen as was his friends in the train, sir." "Come," said I, "I am
glad of that. How many were there? Two or three?" "Oh dear, sir, there
was a matter of forty, sir! All with their heads out o' the
coach-windows, sir, a-hallooing 'Dickens!' all over the station!"

Her ladyship and