This may at any rate be pleaded on his behalf—­that in all the workings of his mind at this time there was very little of personal vanity.  Very personally vain he had been when Julia Brabazon—­the beautiful and noble-born Julia—­had first confessed at Clavering that she loved him; but that vanity had been speedily knocked on its head by her conduct to him.  Men when they are jilted can hardly be vain of the conquest which has led to such a result.  Since that there had been no vanity of that sort.  His love to Florence had been open, honest and satisfactory, but he had not considered himself to have achieved a wonderful triumph at Stratton.  And when he found that Lord Ongar’s widow still loved him—­that he was still regarded with affection by the woman who had formerly wounded him—­there was too much of pain, almost of tragedy, in his position, to admit of vanity.  He would say to himself that, as far as he knew his own heart, he thought he loved Julia the best; but, nevertheless, he thoroughly wished that she had not returned from Italy, or that he had not seen her when she had so returned.

He had promised to write, and that he would do this very night.  He had failed to make Cecilia Burton understand what he intended to do, having, indeed, hardly himself resolved; but before he went to bed he would both resolve and explain to her his resolution.  Immediately, therefore, on his return home he sat down at his desk with the pen in his hand and the paper before him.

At last the words came.  I can hardly say that they were the product of any fixed resolve made before he commenced the writing.  I think that his mind worked more fully when the pen was in his hands than it had done during the hour through which he sat listless, doing nothing, struggling to have a will of his own, but failing.  The letter when it was written was as follows: 

    Bloomsbury square, May, 186—.

Dearest Mrs. Burton:—­I said that I would write to-morrow, but I am writing now, immediately on my return home.  Whatever else you may think of me, pray be sure of this, that I am most anxious to make you know and understand my own position at any rate as well as I do myself.  I tried to explain it to you when I was with you this evening, but I fear that I failed; and when Mr. Burton came in I could not say anything further.

I know that I have behaved very badly to your sister—­very badly, even though she should never become aware that I have done so.  Not that that is possible, for if she were to be my wife to-morrow I should tell her everything.  But badly as you must think of me, I have never for a moment had a premeditated intention to deceive her.  I believe you do know on what terms I had stood with Miss Brabazon before her marriage, and that when she married, whatever my feelings might be, there was no self-accusation.  And after that you know all that took place between me and Florence