have received. No. You say there is not
to be a word of Mrs. Henley.'

'Not a word that can lead her to be suspected.'

'Confirms--confirms--' sighed Mr. Edmonstone.

'Don't write as if you went on hearsay evidence. Speak of
proofs--irrefragable proofs--and then you convict him at once, without
power of eluding you.'

So Mr. Edmonstone proceeded to write, that the application confirmed
the irrefragable proofs, then laughed at himself, and helplessly begged
Philip to give him a start. It now stood thus:--

'Your letter of this morning has caused me more concern than surprise,
as it unhappily only adds confirmation to the intelligence already in
my possession; that either from want of resolution to withstand the
seductions of designing persons, or by the impetuosity and instability
of your own character, you have been led into the ruinous and degrading
practice of gambling; and that from hence proceed the difficulties that
occasion your application to me for money. I am deeply grieved at thus
finding that neither the principles which have hitherto seemed to guide
you, nor the pledges which you used to hold sacred, nor, I may add, the
feelings you have so recently expressed towards a member of my family,
have been sufficient to preserve you from yielding to a temptation which
could never be presented to the mind of any one whose time was properly
occupied in the business of his education.'

'Is that all I am to say about her,' exclaimed Mr. Edmonstone, 'after
the atrocious way the fellow has treated her in?'

'Since it is, happily, no engagement, I cannot see how you can, with
propriety, assume that it is one, by speaking of breaking it off.
Besides, give him no ground for complaint, or he will take refuge in
believing himself ill-used. Ask him if he can disprove it, and when he
cannot, it will be time enough to act further. But wait--wait, sir,' as
the pen was moving over the paper, impatient to dash forward. 'You have
not told him yet of what you accuse him.'

Philip meditated a few moments, then produced another sentence.

'I have no means of judging how long you have been following this
unhappy course; I had rather believe it is of recent adoption, but I do
not know how to reconcile this idea with the magnitude of your demand,
unless your downward progress has been more rapid than usual in such
beginnings. It would, I fear, be quite vain for me to urge upon you all
the arguments and reasons that ought to have