rld, I shall never doubt; and it may be that the
labour which you will now encounter will raise you to
higher standing than any you could have achieved, had the
property remained in your possession.

I think you are right in saying, with reference to our
mutual regard for each other, that neither should be
held as having any claim upon the other. Under present
circumstances, any such claim would be very silly. Nothing
would hamper you in your future career so much as a long
marriage engagement; and for myself, I am aware that the
sorrow and solicitude thence arising would be more than I
could support. Apart from this, also, I feel certain that
I should never obtain my father's sanction for such an
engagement, nor could I make it, unless he sanctioned it.
I feel so satisfied that you will see the truth of this,
that I need not trouble you, and harass my own heart by
pursuing the subject any further.

My feelings of friendship for you--of affectionate
friendship--will be as true as ever. I shall look to your
future career with great hope, and shall hear of your
success with the utmost satisfaction. And I trust that
the time may come, at no very distant date, when we may
all welcome your return to London, and show you that our
regard for you has never been diminished.

May God bless and preserve you in the trials which are
before you, and carry you through them with honour and
safety. Wherever you may be I shall watch for tidings of
you with anxiety, and always hear them with gratification.
I need hardly bid you remember that you have no more
affectionate friend

Than yours always most sincerely,

SOPHIA FURNIVAL.

P.S.--I believe that a meeting between us at the present
moment would only cause pain to both of us. It might drive
you to speak of things which should be wrapped in silence.
At any rate, I am sure that you will not press it on me.

Lucius, when he received this letter, was living with his mother in
lodgings near Finsbury Circus, and the letter had been redirected
from Hamworth to a post-office in that neighbourhood. It was his
intention to take his mother with him to a small town on one of the
rivers that feed the Rhine, and there remain hidden till he could
find some means by which he might earn his bread. He was sitting with
her in the evening, with two dull tallow candles on the table betwee