tion of the original plan.
He accordingly sent off his professional advice on the point, requesting
her assent or otherwise to the amendment, winding up the inquiry with
'Yours faithfully.' On another sheet he wrote:--'Do you suffer from any
unpleasantness in the manner of others on account of me? If so, inform
me, Paula. I cannot otherwise interpret your request for the separate
sheets. While on this point I will tell you what I have learnt relative
to the authorship of that false paragraph about your engagement. It
was communicated to the paper by your uncle. Was the wish father to the
thought, or could he have been misled, as many were, by appearances at
the theatricals?

'If I am not to write to you without a professional reason, surely
you can write to me without such an excuse? When you write tell me of
yourself. There is nothing I so much wish to hear of. Write a great deal
about your daily doings, for my mind's eye keeps those sweet operations
more distinctly before me than my bodily sight does my own.

'You say nothing of having been to look at the chapel-of-ease I told
you of, the plans of which I made when an architect's pupil, working in
metres instead of feet and inches, to my immense perplexity, that the
drawings might be understood by the foreign workmen. Go there and tell
me what you think of its design. I can assure you that every curve
thereof is my own.

'How I wish you would invite me to run over and see you, if only for
a day or two, for my heart runs after you in a most distracted manner.
Dearest, you entirely fill my life! But I forget; we have resolved
not to go VERY FAR. But the fact is I am half afraid lest, with such
reticence, you should not remember how very much I am yours, and with
what a dogged constancy I shall always remember you. Paula, sometimes I
have horrible misgivings that something will divide us, especially if
we do not make a more distinct show of our true relationship. True do I
say? I mean the relationship which I think exists between us, but which
you do not affirm too clearly.--Yours always.'

Away southward like the swallow went the tender lines. He wondered if
she would notice his hint of being ready to pay her a flying visit, if
permitted to do so. His fancy dwelt on that further side of France,
the very contours of whose shore were now lines of beauty for him.
He prowled in the library, and found interest in the mustiest facts
relating to that place, learning with a