I repine at nothing.

"I had written so much of my letter, dear Nelly, intending to finish it
at Rome; but Culduff is obliged to hurry on to Ischl, where some great
diplomatic gathering is now assembled, and I must omit a number of
things I desire to say to you.

"Culduff thinks we must call on Lady Augusta as we go through. I own I
have done my best to avoid this, and if I must go, it will not be in the
best of tempers. The oddest thing of all is, C. dislikes her fully as
much as I do; but there is some wonderful freemasonry among these people
that obliges them, like the members of a secret society, to certain
_egards_ towards each other; and I am satisfied he would rather do a
positive wrong to some one in middle-class life than be wanting in some
punctilio or attention to a person of her condition. I have often been
much provoked by displays of this sentiment, needlessly paraded to
offend my own sense of propriety. I shall add a line after my visit.

"Rome.

"I have news for you. M. Pracontal--if this be his name--not only takes
your estates, but your stepmother. The odious woman had the effrontery
to tell us so to our faces. How I bore it, what I said, or felt, or
suffered, I know not. Some sort of fit, I believe, seized me, for
Culduff sent for a physician when I got back to the hotel, and our
departure was deferred.

"The outrage of this conduct has so shaken my nerves that I can scarcely
write, nor is my sense of indignation lessened by the levity with which
it pleases Culduff to treat the whole matter. 'It is a bold _coup_--a
less courageous woman would have recoiled from it--she is very daring.'
This is what he says of her. She has the courage that says to, the
world, 'I am ready to meet all your censures and your reproaches;' but
I never heard this called heroism before. Must I own to you, Nelly, that
what overwhelms me most in this disgraceful event is the confidence it
evinces in this man's cause. 'You may swear,' said Culduff, 'that she is
backing the winner. Women are timid gamblers, and never risk their money
without almost every chance in their favor.' I know that my Lord plumes
himself on knowing a great deal about us, prompting him at times to
utter much that is less than complimentary; but I give you this opinion
of his here for what it is worth, frankly owning that my dislike to the
woman is such I can be no fair judge of any case into which she enters.

"Pracontal--I only saw him for an instan