tongue when he ought, I feel sure that unless I tell you what Mrs. F. said, he will anticipate me.  Otherwise I should not have mentioned it until your return, for fear of annoying you and spoiling your visit.  So if his reverence hints or lectures, you will know what he means and not heed him.  Mrs. F’s confidences have probably not been confined to me; but were I in your place, I should not make the slightest change in my conduct in consequence.  At all events, if you feel constrained to display any sudden accession of reserve toward Douglas, tell him the reason; because if you dont, he will ascribe the change to coquetry.

“I have turned the spare room on the first floor into a laboratory, and am sitting in it now.  I’m thinking of fitting it up like a studio, and having private views of my inventions, as Scott has of his pictures.  Parson’s man came with some flowers the other day, and informed me that three balls, to the first of which he was invited, took place in the house while I was away.  One or two trifling dilapidations, and the fact that somebody has been tampering with the locks of the organ and piano, dispose me to believe this tale.  Parson’s man declares that he was too virtuous to come to the two last entertainments after finding out that the first was a clandestine one; but I believe he made himself disagreeable, and was not invited.  Probably he quarrelled with some military follower of Armande’s; for he was particularly bitter on the subject of a common soldier making free in a gentleman’s house.  I have not said anything to the two culprits; but I have contrived to make them suspect that I know all; and they now do their duty with trembling diligence.  Some man sat on the little walnut table and broke it; but no other damage worth mentioning has been done.  The table was absurdly repaired with a piece of twine, and pushed into the recess between the organ and the front window, whence I sometimes amuse myself by the experiment of pulling it into broad daylight.  It is always pushed back again before I return in the evening.

“How are you off for money?  I have plenty of loose cash just now.  Madame called last Monday, and asked Matilda, who opened the door, when you would be back.  Thereupon I interviewed her.  I must say she is loyal to her clients; for I had great difficulty in extracting her bill, which was, of course, what she called about.  She evidently recognizes the necessity of keeping husbands in the dark in such matters.  One of the items was for the lace on your maccaroni-colored body, which, as I chanced to remember, you supplied yourself.  After a brief struggle she deducted it; so I paid her the balance:  only 35L 13s. 9d.

“When are you coming back to me?  After Sark I fear you will find home a little dull.  Nevertheless, I should like to see you again.  Come back before Christmas, at any rate.

“Yours, dear Marian, in solitude,
“NED.”