r. Fairlie's permission to shorten
my engagement by a month, in consideration of an unforeseen necessity
for my return to London.

Fortunately for the probability of this excuse, so far as appearances
were concerned, the post brought me two letters from London friends
that morning. I took them away at once to my own room, and sent the
servant with a message to Mr. Fairlie, requesting to know when I could
see him on a matter of business.

I awaited the man's return, free from the slightest feeling of anxiety
about the manner in which his master might receive my application.
With Mr. Fairlie's leave or without it, I must go. The consciousness of
having now taken the first step on the dreary journey which was
henceforth to separate my life from Miss Fairlie's seemed to have
blunted my sensibility to every consideration connected with myself. I
had done with my poor man's touchy pride--I had done with all my little
artist vanities. No insolence of Mr. Fairlie's, if he chose to be
insolent, could wound me now.

The servant returned with a message for which I was not unprepared.
Mr. Fairlie regretted that the state of his health, on that particular
morning, was such as to preclude all hope of his having the pleasure of
receiving me. He begged, therefore, that I would accept his apologies,
and kindly communicate what I had to say in the form of a letter.
Similar messages to this had reached me, at various intervals, during
my three months' residence in the house. Throughout the whole of that
period Mr. Fairlie had been rejoiced to "possess" me, but had never
been well enough to see me for a second time. The servant took every
fresh batch of drawings that I mounted and restored back to his master
with my "respects," and returned empty-handed with Mr. Fairlie's "kind
compliments," "best thanks," and "sincere regrets" that the state of
his health still obliged him to remain a solitary prisoner in his own
room. A more satisfactory arrangement to both sides could not possibly
have been adopted. It would be hard to say which of us, under the
circumstances, felt the most grateful sense of obligation to Mr.
Fairlie's accommodating nerves.

I sat down at once to write the letter, expressing myself in it as
civilly, as clearly, and as briefly as possible. Mr. Fairlie did not
hurry his reply. Nearly an hour elapsed before the answer was placed
in my hands. It was written with beautiful regularity and neatness of
character,