r, and that I am willing to give to those readers who have
conceived something of human interest for them, the latest accounts
of their doings.

With the exception, that is, of Mellot and Sabina. Them I confess
to be an utterly mysterious, fragmentary little couple. Why not?
Do you not meet with twenty such in the course of your life?--
Charming people, who for aught you know may be opera folk from
Paris, or emissaries from the Czar, or disguised Jesuits, or
disguised Angels . . . who evidently 'have a history,' and a strange
one, which you never expect or attempt to fathom; who interest you
intensely for a while, and then are whirled away again in the great
world-waltz, and lost in the crowd for ever? Why should you wish my
story to be more complete than theirs is, or less romantic than
theirs may be? There are more things in London, as well as in
heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in our philosophy. If you but
knew the secret history of that dull gentleman opposite whom you sat
at dinner yesterday!--the real thoughts of that chattering girl whom
you took down!--'Omnia exeunt in mysterium,' I say again. Every
human being is a romance, a miracle to himself now; and will appear
as one to all the world in That Day.

But now for the rest; and Squire Lavington first. He is a very fair
sample of the fate of the British public; for he is dead and buried:
and readers would not have me extricate him out of that situation.
If you ask news of the reason and manner of his end, I can only
answer, that like many others, he went out--as candles do. I
believe he expressed general repentance for all his sins--all, at
least, of which he was aware. To confess and repent of the state of
the Whitford Priors estate, and of the poor thereon, was of course
more than any minister, of any denomination whatsoever, could be
required to demand of him; seeing that would have involved a
recognition of those duties of property, of which the good old
gentleman was to the last a staunch denier; and which are as yet
seldom supposed to be included in any Christian creed, Catholic or
other. Two sermons were preached in Whitford on the day of his
funeral; one by Mr. O'Blareaway, on the text from Job, provided for
such occasions; 'When the ear heard him, then it blessed him,' etc.
etc.: the other by the Baptist preacher, on two verses of the
forty-ninth Psalm--

'They fancy that their houses shall endure