’Before I go any further I will confess that the matter is one,—­I was going to say almost of life and death to me.  Circumstances, not of my own seeking, have for some years past thrown me so closely into intercourse with your family that now to be cast off, and to be put on one side as a disgraced person,—­and that so quickly after the death of her who loved me so dearly, and who was dear to me,—­is such an affront as I cannot bear and hold up my head afterwards.  I have come to be known as her whom your uncle trusted and loved, as her whom your wife trusted and loved,—­obscure as I was before;—­and as her whom, may I not say, you yourself trusted?  As there was much of honour and very much of pleasure in this, so also was their something of misfortune.  Friendships are safest when the friends are of the same standing.  I have always felt there was a danger, and now the thing I have feared has come home to me.

’Now I will plead my case.  I fancy, that when you first heard that I had been cognizant of your daughter’s engagement, you imagined that I was aware of it before I went to Matching.  Had I been so, I should have been guilty of that treachery of which you accuse me.  I did know nothing of it till Lady Mary told me on the day before I left Matching.  That she should tell me was natural enough.  Her mother had known of it, and for the moment,—­if I am not assuming too much in saying so,—­I was filling her mother’s place.  But, in reference to you, I could not exercise the discretion which a mother might have used, and I told her at once, most decidedly, that you must be made acquainted with the fact.

’Then Lady Mary expressed to me her wish,—­not that this matter should be kept any longer from you, for that it should be told to you by Mr Tregear.  It was not for me to raise any question as to Mr Tregear’s fitness or unfitness,—­as to which indeed I could know nothing.  All I could do was to say that if Mr Tregear would make communications at once, I should feel that I had done my duty.  The upshot was that Mr Tregear came to me immediately on my return to London, and agreeing with me that it was imperative for you to be informed, went to you and did inform you.  In all of that, if I have told the story truly, where has been my offence?  I suppose you will believe me, but your daughter can give evidence as to every word that I have written.

’I think that you have got into your mind that I have befriended Mr Tregear’ suit, and that, having received this impression, you hold it with the tenacity which is usual to you.  There never was a greater mistake.  I went to Matching as the friend of my dear friend;—–­but I stayed there at your request, as your friend.  Had I been, when you asked me to do so, a participator in that secret I could not have honestly remained in the position you assigned to me.  Had I done so, I should have deserved your ill opinion.  As it is I have not deserved it, and your condemnation of me has been altogether unjust.  Should I not now receive from you a full withdrawal of all charges against me, I shall be driven to think that after all the insight which circumstances have given me into your character, I have nevertheless been mistaken in the reading of it.  ’I remain, ’Dear Duke of Omnium, ’Yours truly, M. Finn’