at Montfort Castle at
the moment of her departure, and another from Princedown, with these
words only, "All is over." More than a week had elapsed since the last
was written, and he had already learnt from the newspapers that the
funeral had taken place. It was a painful but still necessary duty to
fulfil, to write to her, which he did, but he received no answer to his
letter of sympathy, and to a certain degree, of condolence. Time flew
on, but he could not venture to write again, and without any absolute
cause for his discomfort, he felt harassed and unhappy. He had been so
accustomed all his life to exist under the genial influence of women
that his present days seemed lone and dark. His sister and Berengaria,
two of the most gifted and charming beings in the world, had seemed
to agree that their first duty had ever been to sympathise with his
fortunes and to aid them. Even his correspondence with Myra was changed.
There was a tone of constraint in their communications; perhaps it
was the great alteration in her position that occasioned it? His heart
assured him that such was not the case. He felt deeply and acutely what
was the cause. The subject most interesting to both of them could not be
touched on. And then he thought of Adriana, and contrasted his dull and
solitary home in Hill Street with what it might have been, graced by her
presence, animated by her devotion, and softened by the sweetness of her
temper.

Endymion began to feel that the run of his good fortune was dried. His
sister, when he had a trouble, would never hear of this; she always held
that the misery and calamities of their early years had exhausted the
influence of their evil stars, and apparently she had been right, and
perhaps she would have always been right had he not been perverse, and
thwarted her in the most important circumstances of his life.

In this state of mind, there was nothing for him to do but to plunge
into business; and affairs of state are a cure for many cares and
sorrows. What are our petty annoyances and griefs when we have to guard
the fortunes and the honour of a nation?

The November cabinets had commenced, and this brought all the chiefs
to town, Sidney Wilton among them; and his society was always a great
pleasure to Endymion; the only social pleasure now left to him was a
little dinner at Mr. Wilton's, and little dinners there abounded. Mr.
Wilton knew all the persons that he was always thinking about, but whom,