elf dear--by dear I mean not cheap--you
have been dear in the other sense a long time, as you know), than by not
urging you to go a single degree further in warmth than you please.'

When this was posted he again turned his attention to her walls and
towers, which indeed were a dumb consolation in many ways for the lack
of herself. There was no nook in the castle to which he had not access
or could not easily obtain access by applying for the keys, and this
propinquity of things belonging to her served to keep her image before
him even more constantly than his memories would have done.

Three days and a half after the despatch of his subdued effusion the
telegraph called to tell him the good news that

'Your letter and drawing are just received. Thanks for the latter. Will
reply to the former by post this afternoon.'

It was with cheerful patience that he attended to his three draughtsmen
in the studio, or walked about the environs of the fortress during the
fifty hours spent by her presumably tender missive on the road. A light
fleece of snow fell during the second night of waiting, inverting the
position of long-established lights and shades, and lowering to a dingy
grey the approximately white walls of other weathers; he could trace the
postman's footmarks as he entered over the bridge, knowing them by the
dot of his walking-stick: on entering the expected letter was waiting
upon his table. He looked at its direction with glad curiosity; it was
the first letter he had ever received from her.

'HOTEL ---, NICE,

Feb. 14.

'MY DEAR MR. SOMERSET' (the 'George,' then, to which she had so kindly
treated him in her last conversation, was not to be continued in black
and white),--

'Your letter explaining the progress of the work, aided by the sketch
enclosed, gave me as clear an idea of the advance made since my
departure as I could have gained by being present. I feel every
confidence in you, and am quite sure the restoration is in good hands.
In this opinion both my aunt and my uncle coincide. Please act
entirely on your own judgment in everything, and as soon as you give a
certificate to the builders for the first instalment of their money it
will be promptly sent by my solicitors.

'You bid me ask myself if I have used you well in not sending
intelligence of myself till a fortnight after I had left you. Now,
George, don't be unreasonable! Let me remind you that, as a certain
apostle said, there are a thous