Dear Miss Fletcher,—­I am afraid of your butler.  What is to be done?  I tried this afternoon to pay you a call, but my courage vanished at the lodge.  I think we did not quite exhaust our subject last Thursday.  I have thought a great deal more about it, and I dare say you have done likewise.  Can I see you by any means without facing the butler?  I shall sit in the laurel hedge every morning, on the chance of your taking another walk before breakfast.

Your humble servant,
Gabriel Norton.

I did not go next morning, although I wished to do so.  I hardly know why I waited until Friday; it was not only unreasonable on my part, but also not quite straightforward.  How is it that, even when circumstances might enable us to act according to our impulses, some unexpected inconsistency in our own selves throws a bar across the path?  I begin to think that it must be an idle dream,—­sincerity, self-honesty.  My thoughts are fixed upon it constantly, I strive towards it with heart and soul; yet daily, under the very eyes of my own scrutiny, I lie either in word or in action.

Well, on Friday I went, and we had a happy time together.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have met this creature, to come once again into contact with a being whose footsteps fall near my own.  We are are very different, yet I feel that our faces are turned towards the same light.  I told him a great deal about my mother; she would have loved him.

There goes the second bell, and I have not even washed my hands.  Farewell for to-day.

Yours in all truth,
Emilia.

LETTER XVI.

Graysmill, November 8th.

My little dear Constance, first and foremost I am freezing, and have got a red nose, I’m certain.  Is it cold with you also?  The week has been a full one.  Uncle George’s eldest daughter was married the day before yesterday, and there were great festivities in the family.  The marriage should have taken place last June, but was postponed owing to the grandfather’s death.

What extraordinary creatures we are!  I cannot tell you how many Emilias were at that wedding.  Something in me was touched by the sight of a large family assembled from far and wide, excited and united for the moment by a common sentiment; something in me was lonely beyond description, for I was not of them; and whereas I smiled and made merry in a white gown and felt the tears come to my eyes when the little bride went forth under a shower of rice, I was nevertheless looking on at the smiles and tears of the others with doubt and cynicism rampant in my heart.

Poor little bride!  I wondered how much she thought she loved him, how much he cared for her; and where her smiles and her golden dreams would be this time next year, poor little white thing, veiled in ignorance.