ove letter of course had no
alternative but to declare that it could not possibly be regarded
as having any avail. And indeed he had heart enough in his bosom to
be warmed to something like true heat by such words as these. The
cabbages and cradles ran up in his estimation. The small house at
Pau, which in some of his more despondent moments had assumed an
unqualified appearance of domestic discomfort, was now ornamented and
accoutred till it seemed to be a little paradise. The very cabbages
blossomed into roses, and the little babies in the cradles produced
a throb of paternal triumph in his heart. If she were woman enough
to propose to herself such an agony of devotion, could he not be
man enough to demand from her a devotion of a different kind? As to
Mudbury Docimer's truth, he believed in it not at all, but was quite
convinced of the man's brutality. Yes; she should hang herself--but
it should be round his neck. The serenity should be displayed by her
not as an aunt but as a wife and mother. As for enticing, did he
not now,--just in this moment of his manly triumph,--acknowledge to
himself that she had enticed him to his happiness, to his glory, to
his welfare? In this frame of mind he wrote his answer as follows;--

MY DEAREST,

You have no power of changing your mind again. There must
be some limit to vacillations, and that has been reached.
Something must be fixed at last. Something has been fixed
at last, and I most certainly shall not consent to any
further unfixing. What right has Mudbury to pretend to
know my feelings? or, for the matter of that, what right
have you to accept his description of them? I tell you now
that I place my entire happiness in the hope of making
you my wife. I call upon you to ignore all the selfish
declarations as to my own ideas which I have made in times
past. The only right which you could now possibly have
to separate yourself from me would come from your having
ceased to love me. You do not pretend to say that such is
the case; and therefore, with considerable indignation,
but still very civilly, I desire that Mudbury with his
hard-hearted counsels may go to the ----

Enticed! Of course you have enticed me. I suppose that
women do as a rule entice men, either to their advantage
or disadvantage. I will leave it to you to say whether
you believe that such enticement, if it be allowed its
full scope, will lea