riches can bestow, nothing denied you that you can fancy,
and free to indulge every taste and every wish. To know that
I can at last repay, in some sort, all your affection--that
poor worthless Kate can minister to your pleasure and your
comfort--would make me dare a rasher destiny than this. And
he is so generous, Nelly. The whole of yesterday is like a
page from the 'Arabian Nights,' as I sat surrounded with
gorgeous articles of gold and gems--diamonds such as a queen
might wear, and rubies larger than the glass-drops I used to
deck my hair with long ago! And yet they tell me I have seen
nothing as yet, and that the treasures of Vladovitch Palace
I hear of at every moment are greater than most royal
houses. Lady Hester is kinder than ever, and the Heidendorf
also; but she is cold and reserved--too stately for my
taste--and I cannot overcome my awe of her. Is not this like
a confession of my unfitness for the station I am to
occupy?--are not these signs of inferiority? How little Hans
would stare at the objects of taste and art by which I am
surrounded and of which I never tire in admiring!

"There have been great changes in this family since I wrote,
and some mysterious circumstance is now hanging over them;
but Lady Hester has not told me anything, nor do I care to
repeat rumors which reach me through others. I only know
that Sir Stafford is about to proceed to England as soon as
Captain Onslow's health will permit; he, poor fellow, met
with an accident on the day we left Florence, and my maid,
who sat in the rumble, saw the mishap without knowing or
suspecting the victim! I have done everything to obtain
leave to visit you before I set out, or even to see you on
my way; but Madame de Heidendorf is absolute, and she has
so much important business in hand--such deep political
affairs to transact at Vienna and Dresden--that I find it is
impossible.

"The Prince has promised to write at once about Frank. He
says it will be better to obtain his promotion in the
Austrian service before he enters the Russian, and that this
shall take place immediately. I could see that on this point
he was acutely alive to the fact of our humble position;
but he knows from Lady Hester all about our family, and that
the Daltons acknowledge noth