panionship: flippancy, impertinence,
forwardness, all merged in the steady, sober, serious demeanour which
characterize the respectful and well-bred domestic.

Clarence's orders were soon given. They were limited to the
appurtenances of writing; and as soon as Harrison reappeared with his
master's writing-desk, he was dismissed for the night.

Very slowly did Clarence settle himself to his task, and attempt to
escape the ennui of his solitude, or the restlessness of thought feeding
upon itself, by inditing the following epistle:--

TO THE DUKE OF HAVERFIELD.

I was very unfortunate, my dear Duke, to miss seeing you, when I called
in Arlington Street the evening before last, for I had a great deal to
say to you,--something upon public and a little upon private affairs.
I will reserve the latter, since I only am the person concerned, for a
future opportunity. With respect to the former-- .........

And now, having finished the political part of my letter, let me
congratulate you most sincerely upon your approaching marriage with Miss
Trevanion. I do not know her myself; but I remember that she was the
bosom friend of Lady Flora Ardenne, whom I have often heard speak of
her in the highest and most affectionate terms, so that I imagine her
brother could not better atone to you for dishonestly carrying off
the fair Julia some three years ago, than by giving you his sister in
honourable and orthodox exchange,--the gold amour for the brazen.

As for my lot, though I ought not, at this moment, to dim yours by
dwelling upon it, you know how long, how constantly, how ardently I
have loved Lady Flora Ardenne; how, for her sake, I have refused
opportunities of alliance which might have gratified to the utmost that
worldliness of heart which so many who saw me only in the crowd have
been pleased to impute to me. You know that neither pleasure, nor
change, nor the insult I received from her parents, nor the sudden
indifference which I so little deserved from herself, has been able
to obliterate her image. You will therefore sympathize with me, when
I inform you that there is no longer any doubt of her marriage with
Borodaile (or rather Lord Ulswater, since his father's death), as soon
as the sixth month of his mourning expires; to this period only two
months remain.

Heavens! when one thinks over the past, how incredulous one could become
to the future: when I recall all the tokens of love I received from
that woman, I cannot