If it be so," said Lady Anna through her tears, "let it
be so; and he will take me."

It may have been that the army was too strong for its own
purpose,--too much of an army to gain a victory on that field,--that
a weaker combination of forces would have prevailed when all this
array failed. No one had a word to say for the tailor; no one
admitted that he had been a generous friend; no feeling was expressed
for him. It seemed to be taken for granted that he, from the
beginning, had laid his plans for obtaining possession of an enormous
income in the event of the Countess being proved to be a Countess.
There was no admission that he had done aught for love. Now, in all
these matters, Lady Anna was sure of but one thing alone, and that
was of the tailor's truth. Had they acknowledged that he was good and
noble, they might perhaps have persuaded her,--as the poet had almost
persuaded her lover,--that the fitness of things demanded that they
should be separated.

But she had promised that she would write the letter by the end of
the week, and when the end of a fortnight had come she knew that
it must be written. She had declared over and over again to Mrs.
Bluestone that she must go away from Bedford Square. She could not
live there always, she said. She knew that she was in the way of
everybody. Why should she not go back to her own mother? "Does
mamma mean to say that I am never to live with her any more?" Mrs.
Bluestone promised that if she would write her letter and tell her
cousin that she would try to love him, she should go back to her
mother at once. "But I cannot live here always," persisted Lady Anna.
Mrs. Bluestone would not admit that there was any reason why her
visitor should not continue to live in Bedford Square as long as the
arrangement suited Lady Lovel.

Various letters were written for her. The Countess wrote one which
was an unqualified acceptance of the Earl's offer, and which was
very short. Alice Bluestone wrote one which was full of poetry. Mrs.
Bluestone wrote a third, in which a great many ambiguous words were
used,--in which there was no definite promise, and no poetry. But
had this letter been sent it would have been almost impossible for
the girl afterwards to extricate herself from its obligations.
The Serjeant, perhaps, had lent a word or two, for the letter was
undoubtedly very clever. In this letter Lady Anna was made to say
that she would always have the greatest pleasure in receiving