e you that his father would not consent to
give up the house. You did not answer him then."

"It was two lines,--without a date. I don't even know where he
lives."

"You know his club?"

"Yes,--I know his club. I do feel, Lady Chiltern, that I have become
engaged to marry a man as to whom I am altogether in the dark. I
don't like writing to him at his club."

"You have seen more of him here and in Italy than most girls see of
their future husbands."

"So I have,--but I have seen no one belonging to him. Don't you
understand what I mean? I feel all at sea about him. I am sure he
does not mean any harm."

"Certainly he does not."

"But then he hardly means any good."

"I never saw a man more earnestly in love," said Lady Chiltern.

"Oh yes,--he's quite enough in love. But--"

"But what?"

"He'll just remain up in London thinking about it, and never tell
himself that there's anything to be done. And then, down here, what
is my best hope? Not that he'll come to see me, but that he'll come
to see his horse, and that so, perhaps, I may get a word with him."
Then Lady Chiltern suggested, with a laugh, that perhaps it might
have been better that she should have accepted Mr. Spooner. There
would have been no doubt as to Mr. Spooner's energy and purpose.
"Only that if there was not another man in the world I wouldn't marry
him, and that I never saw any other man except Gerard Maule whom I
even fancied I could marry."

About a fortnight after this, when the hunting was all over, in the
beginning of April, she did write to him as follows, and did direct
her letter to his club. In the meantime Lord Chiltern had intimated
to his wife that if Gerard Maule behaved badly he should consider
himself to be standing in the place of Adelaide's father or brother.
His wife pointed out to him that were he her father or her brother he
could do nothing,--that in these days let a man behave ever so badly,
no means of punishing was within reach of the lady's friends. But
Lord Chiltern would not assent to this. He muttered something about
a horsewhip, and seemed to suggest that one man could, if he were so
minded, always have it out with another, if not in this way, then in
that. Lady Chiltern protested, and declared that horsewhips could not
under any circumstances be efficacious. "He had better mind what he
is about," said Lord Chiltern. It was after this that Adelaide wrote
her letter:--

Harrington Hall, 5th April.