n to Messrs. Grey & Barry about such
trifles as those contained in the letter from the Buntingford lawyers.
Trifles to him they were not; but trifles they must become, if put into
a letter addressed to a London firm. "Our client is anxious to know
specifically that she is to be allowed to bring Miss Tickle with her,
when she removes to Buston Hall. Her happiness depends greatly on the
company of Miss Tickle, to which she had been used now for many years.
Our client wishes to be assured also that she shall be allowed to keep a
pair of ponies in addition to the carriage-horses, which will be
maintained, no doubt, chiefly for your own purposes." These were the
demands as made by Messrs. Soames & Simpson, and felt by Mr. Prosper to
be altogether impossible. He recollected the passionate explosion of
wrath to which the name of Miss Tickle had already brought him in
presence of the clergyman of his parish. He would endure no farther
disgrace on behalf of Miss Tickle. Miss Tickle should never be an inmate
of his house, and as for the ponies, no pony should ever be stabled in
his stalls. A pony was an animal which of its very nature was
objectionable to him. There was a want of dignity in a pony to which
Buston Hall should never be subjected. "And also," he said to himself at
last, "there is a lack of dignity about Miss Thoroughbung herself which
would do me an irreparable injury."

But how should he make known his decision to the lady herself? and how
should he escape from the marriage in such a manner as to leave no stain
on his character as a gentleman? If he could have offered her a sum of
money, he would have done so at once; but that he thought would not be
gentleman-like,--and would be a confession on his own part that he had
behaved wrongly.

At last he determined to take no notice of the lawyers' letter, and
himself to write to Miss Thoroughbung, telling her that the objects
which they proposed to themselves by marriage were not compatible, and
that therefore their matrimonial intentions must be allowed to subside.
He thought it well over, and felt assured that very much of the success
of such a measure must depend upon the wording of the letter. There need
be no immediate haste. Miss Thoroughbung would not come to Buston again
quite at once to disturb him by a farther visit. Before she would come
he would have flown to Italy. The letter must be courteous, and somewhat
tender, but it must be absolutely decisive. There