MADAM,--

It is known to the writer that Lord Dumbello has arranged
with certain friends how he may escape from his present
engagement. I think, therefore, that it is my duty as a
Christian to warn you of this.

Yours truly,

A WELLWISHER.

Now it had happened that the embryo Mrs. Tickler's most intimate
bosom friend and confidante was known at Plumstead to live at
Littlebath, and it had also happened--most unfortunately--that
the embryo Mrs. Tickler, in the warmth of her neighbourly regard,
had written a friendly line to her friend Griselda Grantly,
congratulating her with all female sincerity on her splendid nuptials
with the Lord Dumbello.

"It is not her natural hand," said Mrs. Grantly, talking the matter
over with her husband, "but you may be sure it has come from her.
It is a part of the new Christianity which we learn day by day
from the palace teaching." But these things had some effect on the
archdeacon's mind. He had learned lately the story of Lady Julia Mac
Mull, and was not sure that his son-in-law--as ought to be about to
be--had been entirely blameless in that matter. And then in these
days Lord Dumbello made no great sign. Immediately on Griselda's
return to Plumstead he had sent her a magnificent present of
emeralds, which, however, had come to her direct from the jewellers,
and might have been--and probably was--ordered by his man of
business. Since that he had neither come, nor sent, nor written.
Griselda did not seem to be in any way annoyed by this absence of
the usual sign of love, and went on steadily with her great duties.
"Nothing," as she told her mother, "had been said about writing, and,
therefore, she did not expect it." But the archdeacon was not quite
at his ease. "Keep Dumbello up to his p's and q's, you know," a
friend of his had whispered to him at his club. By heavens, yes. The
archdeacon was not a man to bear with indifference a wrong in such
a quarter. In spite of his clerical profession, few men were more
inclined to fight against personal wrongs--and few men more able.

"Can there be anything wrong, I wonder?" said he to his wife. "Is
it worth while that I should go up to London?" But Mrs. Grantly
attributed it all to the palace doctrine. What could be more natural,
looking at all the circumstances of the Tickler engagement? She
therefore gave her voice against any steps being taken by the
archdeacon. A day or two after that Mrs. Proudie met Mrs. Ar