and I claim from you belief for that
statement. Indeed I do not think that you ever doubted my
love.

Nevertheless, when you told me that I might no longer hope
to make you my wife, I had no word of remonstrance that I
could utter. You acted as any woman would act whom love
had not made a fool. Then came the episode of Mr Grey; and
bitter as have been my feelings whilst that engagement
lasted, I never made any attempt to come between you and
the life you had chosen. In saying this I do not forget
the words which I spoke last summer at Basle, when, as
far as I knew, you still intended that he should be your
husband. But what I said then was nothing to that which,
with much violence, I refrained from saying. Whether you
remember those few words I cannot tell; but certainly
you would not have remembered them,--would not even have
noticed them,--had your heart been at Nethercoats.

But all this is nothing. You are now again a free woman;
and once again I ask you to be my wife. We are both older
than we were when we loved before, and will both be prone
to think of marriage in a somewhat different light. Then
personal love for each other was most in our thoughts. God
forbid that it should not be much in our thoughts now!
Perhaps I am deceiving myself in saying that it is not
even now stronger in mine than any other consideration.
But we have both reached that time of life, when it is
probable that in any proposition of marriage we should
think more of our adaptability to each other than we
did before. For myself I know that there is much in my
character and disposition to make me unfit to marry a
woman of the common stamp. You know my mode of life, and
what are my hopes and my chances of success. I run great
risk of failing. It may be that I shall encounter ruin
where I look for reputation and a career of honour.
The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of
success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on
as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my
disposal. If you were my wife to-morrow I should expect to
use your money, if it were needed, in struggling to obtain
a seat in Parliament and a hearing there. I will hardly
stoop to tell you that I do not ask you to be my wife for
the sake of this aid;--but if you were to become my wife
I should expect all your cooperati