hich I
have before spoken--confessions which it may be less difficult to make
with pen and ink than with spoken words, but which, when so made, are
more degrading. The word that is written is a thing capable of permanent
life, and lives frequently to the confusion of its parent. A man should
make his confessions always by word of mouth, if it be possible. Whether
such a course would have been possible to Harry Clavering may be
doubtful. It might have been that in a personal meeting the necessary
confession would not have got itself adequately spoken. Thinking,
perhaps, of this, he wrote his letter as follows on that night:

BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, July, 186-.

The date was easily written, but how was he to go on after that? In what
form of affection or indifference was he to address her whom he had at
that last meeting called his own, his dearest Julia? He got out of his
difficulty ill the way common to ladies and gentlemen under such stress,
and did not address her by any name or any epithet. The date he allowed
to remain, and then he went away at once to the matter of his subject.

I feel that I owe it you at once to tell you what has been my
history during the last few weeks. I came up from Clavering to-day,
and have since that been with Mrs. and Miss Burton. Immediately on
my return from them I sit down to write you.

After having said so much, Harry probably felt that the rest of his
letter would be surplusage. Those few words would tell her all that it
was required that she should know. But courtesy demanded that he should
say more, and he went on with his confession.

You know that I became engaged to Miss Burton soon after your own
marriage. I feel now that I should have told you this when we first
met; but yet, had I done so, it would have seemed as though I told
it with a special object. I don't know whether I make myself
understood in this. I can only hope that I do so.

Understood! Of course she understood it all. She required no blundering
explanation from him to assist her intelligence.

I wish now that I had mentioned it. It would have been better for
both of us. I should have been saved much pain, and you, perhaps,
some uneasiness.

I was called down to Clavering a few weeks ago about some business
in the family, and then became ill, so that I was confined to my bed
instead of returning to town. Had it not been for this I should not