--and, so
supported, made a clean breast of it, as the reader shall see.

DEAR LADY A., [he said]--Here I am, back in town, banished
from heaven. My darling, gentle, future papa-in-law
gave me to understand, when I told him the extent of my
hopes last night, that the outside of the park-gates at
Humblethwaite was the place for me; nevertheless he sent
me to Penrith with the family horses, and, taking it as
a whole, I think that my interview with him, although
very disagreeable, was not unsatisfactory. I told him
everything that I could tell him. He was kind enough to
call me a blackguard (!!!) because I had gone to Emily
without speaking to him first. On such occasions, however,
a man takes anything. I ventured to suggest that what I
had done was not unprecedented among young people, and
hinted that while he could make me the future master of
Humblethwaite, I could make my cousin the future Lady
Hotspur; and that in no other way could Humblethwaite and
the Hotspurs be kept together. It was wonderful how he
cooled down after a while, saying that he would pay all my
debts if he found them--satisfactory. I can only say that
I never found them so.

It ended in this--that he is to make inquiry about me, and
that I am to have my cousin unless I am found out to be
very bad indeed. How or when the inquiries will be made I
do not know; but I am here to prepare for them.

Yours always most faithfully,

G. H.

I do not like to ask Altringham to do anything for me. No
man ever had a kinder friend than I have had in him, and
I know he objects to meddle in the money matters of other
people. But if he could lend me his name for a thousand
pounds till I can get these things settled, I believe
I could get over every other difficulty. I should as a
matter of course include the amount in the list of debts
which I should give to Sir Harry; but the sum at once,
which I could raise on his name without trouble to him,
would enable me to satisfy the only creditor who will be
likely to do me real harm with Sir Harry. I think you
will understand all this, and will perceive how very
material the kindness to me may be; but if you think that
Altringham will be unwilling to do it, you had better not
show him this letter.

It was the mixed curacoa and brandy which gave George Hotspur the
courage to make the reque