ange that I have not written
before this and congratulated you upon your marriage. But I did not
know of it until a week ago, when I came home from the Continent,
summoned by the news that my mother was very ill. Then I found a
telegram from my Aunt Betsey, which said, 'Bessie was married
yesterday to Grey Jerrold and sails to-day for Liverpool.' I was not
greatly surprised, and I am glad that it is Grey, I know he is
worthy of you and I hope you will both be happy, even if I am
wretched and forlorn, for I am more so than I ever was in my life
before. Mother is dead and we have just returned from burying her at
the old home in Middlesex. She died of typhoid-pneumonia the day
after my return. I did not send for you to attend her funeral, for
fear it would seem like an insult, she had taken such a stand
against you during her life. But she changed very much in that
respect, and a few hours before she died she talked of you, and said
she withdrew all her opposition, and that, if I loved you still and
you loved me she hoped we would marry and be happy. I did not tell
her of the telegram, and so she did not know that you were already
married. But, strangest of all, she advised me to go to America, and
if I could find anything to do, which would not compromise me as a
gentleman, to do it. Think of that, Bessie. My mother advising me to
work, after all her training to the contrary. But she knew there was
no other way. It is work or starve with me now. A few weeks before
mother's death she lost nearly everything which she had in her own
right, and which would have naturally come to me, so that most of
her income died with her. Neither Trevellian House, nor the one in
the country, is ours any longer, and father must go into lodgings
when the new heir takes possession. This, at his age, is very hard,
and I am sorry for him. If we only had the house in Middlesex it
would not be so bad, for he likes the country and would be happy
there. What he will do here alone in London I am sure I don't know,
for I am going out to India on a salary of three hundred pounds a
year; small enough for a chap of my habits, but better than nothing.

"I'd like awfully to see you once more before I go, and if you come
to London I hope you will let me call upon you. Don't think I am
breaking my heart because you belon