men failed to do who were much less foolish before the world.  And as to that matter of cowardice, he would have thought it the greatest blessing in the world to be shut up in a room with Crosbie, having permission to fight with him till one of them should have been brought by stress of battle to give up his claim to Lily Dale.  Eames was no coward.  He feared no man on earth.  But he was terribly afraid of Amelia Roper.

He wandered about through the old Manor woods very ill at ease.  The post from Guestwick went out at seven, and he must at once make up his mind whether or no he would write to Amelia on that day.  He must also make up his mind as to what he would say to her.  He felt that he should at least answer her letter, let his answer be what it might.  Should he promise to marry her,—­say, in ten or twelve years’ time?  Should he tell her that he was a blighted being, unfit for love, and with humility entreat of her that he might be excused?  Or should he write to her mother, telling her that Burton Crescent would not suit him any longer, promising her to send the balance on receipt of his next payment, and asking her to send his clothes in a bundle to the Income-tax Office?  Or should he go home to his own mother, and boldly tell it all to her?

He at last resolved that he must write the letter, and as he composed it in his mind he sat himself down beneath an old tree which stood on a spot at which many of the forest tracks met and crossed each other.  The letter, as he framed it here, was not a bad letter, if only he could have got it written and posted.  Every word of it he chose with precision, and in his mind he emphasised every expression which told his mind clearly and justified his purpose.  “He acknowledged himself to have been wrong in misleading his correspondent, and allowing her to imagine that she possessed his heart.  He had not a heart at her disposal.  He had been weak not to write to her before, having been deterred from doing so by the fear of giving her pain; but now he felt that he was bound in honour to tell her the truth.  Having so told her, he would not return to Burton Crescent, if it would pain her to see him there.  He would always have a deep regard for her,”—­oh, Johnny!—­“and would hope anxiously that her welfare in life might be complete.”  That was the letter, as he wrote it on the tablets of his mind under the tree; but the getting it put on to paper was a task, as he knew, of greater difficulty.  Then, as he repeated it to himself, he fell asleep.

“Young man,” said a voice in his ear as he slept.  At first the voice spoke as a voice from his dream without waking him, but when it was repeated, he sat up and saw that a stout gentleman was standing over him.  For a moment he did not know where he was, or how he had come there; nor could he recollect, as he saw the trees about him, how long he had been in the wood.  But he knew the stout gentleman well enough, though he had not seen him for more than two years.  “Young man,” said the voice, “if you want to catch rheumatism, that’s the way to do it.  Why, it’s young Eames, isn’t it?”