er;
but to you I cannot pretend to say that my bereavements or
misfortunes reconcile me to such a fate. I cannot cease to
remember my age, my ambition, and I will say, my love. I
suppose that everything is over for me,--as though I were
an old woman, going down into the grave, but at my time
of life I find it hard to believe that it must be so.
And then the time of waiting may be so long! I suppose I
could start a house in London, and get people around me
by feeding and flattering them, and by little intrigues,
--like that woman of whom you are so fond. It is money
that is chiefly needed for that work, and of money I have
enough now. And people would know at any rate who I am.
But I could not flatter them, and I should wish the food
to choke them if they did not please me. And you would
not come, and if you did,--I may as well say it boldly,
--others would not. An ill-natured sprite has been busy
with me, which seems to deny me everything which is so
freely granted to others.

As for you, the world is at your feet. I dread two things
for you,--that you should marry unworthily, and that
you should injure your prospects in public life by an
uncompromising stiffness. On the former subject I can say
nothing to you. As to the latter, let me implore you to
come down here before you decide upon anything. Of course
you can at once accept Mr. Gresham's offer; and that is
what you should do unless the office proposed to you be
unworthy of you. No friend of yours will think that your
old place at the Colonies should be rejected. But if your
mind is still turned towards refusing, ask Mr. Gresham to
give you three or four days for decision, and then come
here. He cannot refuse you,--nor after all that is passed
can you refuse me.

Yours affectionately,

L. K.

When he had read this letter he at once acknowledged to himself
that he could not refuse her request. He must go to Saulsby, and he
must do so at once. He was about to see Mr. Gresham immediately,
--within half an hour; and as he could not expect at the most above
twenty-four hours to be allowed to him for consideration, he must
go down to Saulsby on the same evening. As he walked to the Prime
Minister's house he called at a telegraph office and sent down his
message. "I will be at Saulsby by the train arriving at 7 P.M. Send
to meet me." Then he went on, and in a