fellow, and remembers how
warmly you contradicted the report that your match was broken off.
For heaven's sake, follow up your warmth of denial with some show of
positive action, a little less cool than your present quiescence, or
you cannot expect that any amount of love should be strong enough
to prevent your affianced from resenting your conduct. I am doubly
anxious; quite as anxious that Kilcullen, whom I detest, should not
get young Wyndham's money, as I am that you should. He is utterly,
_utterly_ smashed. If he got double the amount of Fanny Wyndham's
cash, it could not keep him above water for more than a year or so;
and then she must go down with him. I am sure the old fool, his
father, does not half know the amount of his son's liabilities, or
he could not be heartless enough to consent to sacrifice the poor
girl as she will be sacrificed, if Kilcullen gets her. I am not
usually very anxious about other people's concerns; but I do feel
anxious about this matter. I want to have a respectable house in the
country, in which I can show my face when I grow a little older, and
be allowed to sip my glass of claret, and talk about my horses, in
spite of my iniquitous propensities--and I expect to be allowed to
do so at Kelly's Court. But, if you let Miss Wyndham slip through
your fingers, you won't have a house over your head in a few years'
time, much less a shelter to offer a friend. For God's sake, start
for Grey Abbey at once. Why, man alive, the ogre can't eat you!

The whole town is in the devil of a ferment about Brien. Of course
you heard the rumour, last week, of his heels being cracked? Some
of the knowing boys want to get out of the trap they are in; and,
despairing of bringing the horse down in the betting by fair means,
got a boy out of Scott's stables to swear to the fact. I went down
at once to Yorkshire, and published a letter in _Bell's Life_ last
Saturday, stating that he is all right. This you have probably seen.
You will be astonished to hear it, but I believe Lord Tattenham
Corner got the report spread. For heaven's sake don't mention this,
particularly not as coming from me. They say that if Brien does the
trick, he will lose more than he has made these three years, and I
believe he will. He is nominally at 4 to 1; but you can't get 4 to
anything like a figure from a safe party.

For heav