better--though
she is given to flame out at what she considers unrighteous dealings;
but every woman has her faults, and every man too as far as that goes,
and upon the whole few of them have less than Mary. I will write to her
at once."

The mayor was not a man to delay when his mind was once made up, and
sitting down at a writing desk he wrote as follows:

"DEAR WIFE: I inclose a letter which has come for you from your Cousin
Jack. I opened it, and you will think poorly of me when I tell you that
had it been filled with complaints of me, as I expected, it would not
have come to your hands; for your anger against me is fierce enough
without the adding of fresh fuel thereto. But the lad, as you will see,
writes in quite another strain, and remembers former kindnesses rather
than late injuries. His letter has put it into my head to think matters
over, and in a different spirit from that in which I had previously
regarded it, and I have come to the conclusion that I have acted
wrongly; first, that I did not make allowances enough for the boy;
second, that I insisted on keeping him to a trade he disliked; third,
that I have given too willing an ear to what Andrew Carson has said
against the boy; lastly, that I took such means of freeing myself from
him. I today give Andrew Carson notice to quit my service--a matter in
which I have hitherto withstood you. I am willing to forget the words
which you spoke to me in anger, seeing that there was some foundation
for them, and that when a woman is in a passion her tongue goes further
than she means.

"Now, as I am ready to put this on one side, I trust that you also will
put aside your anger at my having obtained the pressing for a soldier
of your cousin. You can see for yourself by his writing that he does not
desire that any enmity shall arise out of the manner of his going. For
fifteen years we have lived in amity, and I see not why, after this
cloud passes away, we should not do so again.

"I miss you sorely. Things go badly with us since you have gone. The
food is badly cooked, and the serving indifferent. If you will write
to tell me that you are willing to come back, and to be a loving
and dutiful wife again, I will make me a holiday and come over to
Basingstoke to fetch you and Alice home again. I am writing to Jack
and sending him five guineas, for which he will no doubt find a use in
getting things suitable for the adventure upon which he is embarked,
for the paymen