room. I was a little doubtful before I began on the
first night whether it was quite practicable to conceal the requisite
effort; but I soon had the satisfaction of finding that it was, and that
we were all going on together, in the first page, as easily, to all
appearance, as if we had been sitting round the fire.

I am obliged to go out on Monday at five and to dine out; but I will be
at home at any time before that hour that you may appoint. You say you
are only going to stay one night in town; but if you could stay two, and
would dine with us alone on Tuesday, _that_ is the plan that we should
all like best. Let me have one word from you by post on Monday morning.
Few things that I saw, when I was away, took my fancy so much as the
Electric Telegraph, piercing, like a sunbeam, right through the cruel
old heart of the Coliseum at Rome. And on the summit of the Alps, among
the eternal ice and snow, there it was still, with its posts sustained
against the sweeping mountain winds by clusters of great beams--to say
nothing of its being at the bottom of the sea as we crossed the Channel.
With kindest loves,

Ever, my dear Mrs. Watson,
Most faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Miss Mary Boyle.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, January 16th, 1854._

MY DEAR MARY,

It is all very well to pretend to love me as you do. Ah! If you loved as
_I_ love, Mary! But, when my breast is tortured by the perusal of such a
letter as yours, Falkland, Falkland, madam, becomes my part in "The
Rivals," and I play it with desperate earnestness.

As thus:

FALKLAND (_to Acres_). Then you see her, sir,
sometimes?

ACRES. See her! Odds beams and sparkles, yes.
See her acting! Night after night.

FALKLAND (_aside and furious_). Death and the
devil! Acting, and I not there! Pray, sir
(_with constrained calmness_), what does she
act?

ACRES. Odds, monthly nurses and babbies! Sairey
Gamp and Betsey Prig, "which, wotever it is, my
dear (_mimicking_), I likes it brought reg'lar
and draw'd mild!" _That's_ very like her.

FALKLAND. Confusion! Laceration! Perhaps, sir,
perhaps she sometimes acts--ha! ha! perhaps she
sometimes acts, I say--eh! sir?--a--ha, ha, ha!
a fairy? (_With great bitterness._)

ACRES. Odds, ga