e ground and begged her to suffer
my poor friend to go in peace. After a good deal of finessing she
consented, and the next day, with a single word, packed him off to
Naples to drown his sorrow in debauchery. I have come to the conclusion
that she is more dangerous in her virtuous moods than in her vicious
ones, and that she probably has a way of turning her back which is the
most provoking thing in the world. She 's an actress, she could n't
forego doing the thing dramatically, and it was the dramatic touch that
made it fatal. I wished her, of course, to let him down easily; but
she desired to have the curtain drop on an attitude, and her attitudes
deprive inflammable young artists of their reason..... Roderick made an
admirable bust of her at the beginning of the winter, and a dozen women
came rushing to him to be done, mutatis mutandis, in the same style.
They were all great ladies and ready to take him by the hand, but he
told them all their faces did n't interest him, and sent them away
vowing his destruction."

At this point of his long effusion, Rowland had paused and put by his
letter. He kept it three days and then read it over. He was disposed at
first to destroy it, but he decided finally to keep it, in the hope that
it might strike a spark of useful suggestion from the flint of Cecilia's
good sense. We know he had a talent for taking advice. And then it might
be, he reflected, that his cousin's answer would throw some light on
Mary Garland's present vision of things. In his altered mood he added
these few lines:--

"I unburdened myself the other day of this monstrous load of perplexity;
I think it did me good, and I let it stand. I was in a melancholy
muddle, and I was trying to work myself free. You know I like
discussion, in a quiet way, and there is no one with whom I can have it
as quietly as with you, most sagacious of cousins! There is an excellent
old lady with whom I often chat, and who talks very much to the point.
But Madame Grandoni has disliked Roderick from the first, and if I were
to take her advice I would wash my hands of him. You will laugh at me
for my long face, but you would do that in any circumstances. I am half
ashamed of my letter, for I have a faith in my friend that is deeper
than my doubts. He was here last evening, talking about the Naples
Museum, the Aristides, the bronzes, the Pompeian frescoes, with such
a beautiful intelligence that doubt of the ultimate future seemed
blasph