at she should wish them to be out of the way? They could
not be made to get out of the way, but Lady Frances might at any rate
be repressed. Therefore she determined to stop the correspondence.

She did stop the second letter,--and told her daughter that she had
done so.

"Papa didn't say I wasn't to have my letters," pleaded Lady Frances.

"Your papa did not suppose for a moment that you would submit to
anything so indecent."

"It is not indecent."

"I shall make myself the judge of that. You are now in my care.
Your papa can do as he likes when he comes back." There was a long
altercation, but it ended in victory on the part of the Marchioness.
The young lady, when she was told that, if necessary, the
postmistress in the village should be instructed not to send on any
letter addressed to George Roden, believed in the potency of the
threat. She felt sure also that she would be unable to get at any
letters addressed to herself if the quasi-parental authority of the
Marchioness were used to prevent it. She yielded, on the condition,
however, that one letter should be sent; and the Marchioness, not at
all thinking that her own instructions would have prevailed with the
post-mistress, yielded so far.

The tenderness of the letter readers can appreciate and understand
without seeing it expressed in words. It was very tender, full of
promises, and full of trust. Then came the short passage in which
her own uncomfortable position was explained;--"You will understand
that there has come one letter which I have not been allowed to
see. Whether mamma has opened it I do not know, or whether she has
destroyed it. Though I have not seen it, I take it as an assurance of
your goodness and truth. But it will be useless for you to write more
till you hear from me again; and I have promised that this, for the
present, shall be my last to you. The last and the first! I hope
you will keep it till you have another, in order that you may have
something to tell you how well I love you." As she sent it from her
she did not know how much of solace there was even in the writing of
a letter to him she loved, nor had she as yet felt how great was the
torment of remaining without palpable notice from him she loved.

After the episode of the letter life at Koenigsgraaf was very bitter
and very dull. But few words were spoken between the Marchioness and
her stepdaughter, and those were never friendly in their tone or
kindly in their nature.