nce from a moral fever. My nerves are yet unstrung. I am as
one to whom is prescribed the most complete repose;--the visits, even
of friends the dearest, forbidden as a perilous excitement. The sight of
you--of any one from the great world--but especially of one whose
rich vitality of youth and hope affronts and mocks my own fatigued
exhaustion, would but irritate, unsettle, torture me. When I am quite
well I will ask you to come. I shall enjoy your visit. Till then, on no
account, and on no pretext, let my morbid ear catch the sound of your
footfall on my quiet floor. Write to me often, but tell me nothing
of the news and gossip of the world. Tell me only of yourself, your
studies, your thoughts, your sentiments, your wishes. Nor forget my
injunctions. Marry young, marry for love; let no ambition of power, no
greed of gold, ever mislead you into giving to your life a companion
who is not the half of your soul. Choose with the heart of a man; I know
that you will choose with the self-esteem of a gentleman; and be assured
beforehand of the sympathy and sanction of your 'CHURLISH BUT LOVING
KINSMAN.'"

After this letter, Lionel felt that, at all events, he could not at once
proceed to the old manor-house in defiance of its owner's prohibition.
He wrote briefly, entreating Darrell to forgive him if he persisted
in the prayer to be received at Fawley, stating that his desire for a
personal interview was now suddenly become special and urgent; that it
not only concerned himself, but affected his benefactor. By return
of post Darrell replied with curt frigidity, repeating, with even
sternness, his refusal to receive Lionel, but professing himself ready
to attend to all that his kinsman might address to him by letter. "If it
be as you state," wrote Darrell, with his habitual irony, "a matter
that relates to myself, I claim, as a lawyer for my own affairs--the
precaution I once enjoined to my clients--a written brief should always
precede a personal consultation."

In fact, the proud man suspected that Lionel had been directly or
indirectly addressed on behalf of Jasper Losely; and certainly that
was the last subject on which he would have granted an interview to
his young kinsman. Lionel, however; was not perhaps sorry to be thus
compelled to trust to writing his own and Sophy's cause. Darrell was
one of those men whose presence inspires a certain awe--one of those
men whom we feel, upon great occasions, less embarrassed to a