have heard at San
Francisco I suppose that you have done the same. I at any rate
shall be perfectly contented if from this time our affairs can be
made one.

And now about myself,--immediately. I have come here all alone.
Since I last saw you in New York I have not had altogether a good
time. I have had a great struggle and have been thrown on my own
resources and have been all alone. Very cruel things have been
said of me. You heard cruel things said, but I presume them to
have been said to you with reference to my late husband. Since
that they have been said to others with reference to you. I have
not now come, as my countrymen do generally, backed with a trunk
full of introductions and with scores of friends ready to receive
me. It was necessary to me that I should see you and hear my
fate,--and here I am. I appeal to you to release me in some degree
from the misery of my solitude. You know,--no one so well,--that
my nature is social and that I am not given to be melancholy. Let
us be cheerful together, as we once were, if it be only for a day.
Let me see you as I used to see you, and let me be seen as I used
to be seen.

Come to me and take me out with you, and let us dine together, and
take me to one of your theatres. If you wish it I will promise you
not to allude to that revelation you made to me just now, though
of course it is nearer to my heart than any other matter. Perhaps
some woman's vanity makes me think that if you would only see me
again, and talk to me as you used to talk, you would think of me
as you used to think.

You need not fear but you will find me at home. I have no whither
to go,--and shall hardly stir from the house till you come to me.
Send me a line, however, that I may have my hat on if you are
minded to do as I ask you.

Yours with all my heart,

WINIFRED HURTLE.

This letter took her much time to write, though she was very careful
so to write as to make it seem that it had flown easily from her pen.
She copied it from the first draught, but she copied it rapidly, with
one or two premeditated erasures, so that it should look to have been
done hurriedly. There had been much art in it. She had at any rate
suppressed any show of anger. In calling him to her she had so written
as to make him feel that if he would come he need not fear the claws
of an offended lioness:--and yet she was a