according to the state of affairs; and when, on his way
through London, he went to receive Miss Ponsonby's commissions, she
gave him a large packet, addressed to Mary.

'Am I to give her this at all events!' he asked, faltering.

'It would serve her right.'

'Then I should not give it to her. Pray write another, for she does
not deserve to be wounded, however she may have decided.'

'I do not know how I shall ever forgive her,' sighed Aunt Melicent.

'People are never so unforgiving as when they have nothing to forgive.'

'Ah! Lord Fitzjocelyn, that is not your case. This might have been far
otherwise, had I not misjudged you at first.'

'Do not believe so. It would have been hard to think me more foolish
than I was. This probation has been the best schooling for me; and,
let it end as it may, I shall be thankful for what has been.'

And in this spirit did he sail, and many an anxious thought followed
him, no heart beating higher than did that of little Charlotte, who
founded a great many hopes on the crisis that his coming would produce.
Seven years was a terrible time to have been engaged, and the little
workhouse girl thought her getting almost as old as Mrs. Beckett. She
wondered whether Tom thought so too! She did not want to think about
Martha's first cousin, who was engaged for thirty-two years to a
journeyman tailor, and when they married at last, they were both so
cross that she went out to service again at the end of a month.
Charlotte set up all her caps with Tom's favourite colour, and 'turned
Angelina' twenty times a-day.

Then came the well-known Peruvian letters, and a thin one for
Charlotte. Without recollecting that it must have crossed Lord
Fitzjocelyn on the road, she tore it open the instant she had carried
in the parlour letters. Alas! poor Charlotte!

'I write to you for the last time, lest you should consider yourself
any longer bound by the engagements which must long have been
distasteful. When I say that Mr. Ford has for some months been my
colleague, you will know to what I allude, without my expressing any
further. I am already embarked for the U. S. My enemies have
succeeded in destroying my character and blighting my hopes. I am at
present a fugitive from the hands of so-called justice; but I could
have borne all with a cheerful heart if you had not played me false.
You will never hear more of one who loved you faithfully.

'TH.