g from his brains that night; but before he left his
chambers he wrote the following letter:--

Midnight, Saturday,
All among my books and papers,
2, Bolt Court, Middle Temple.

DEAR, DEAR LUCY,

I told you to-day that you had ever been the Queen who
reigned in those palaces which I have built in Spain.
You did not make me much of an answer; but such as it
was,--only just one muttered doubtful-sounding word,--it
has made me hope that I may be justified in asking you to
share with me a home which will not be palatial. If I am
wrong--? But no;--I will not think I am wrong, or that I
can be wrong. No sound coming from you is really doubtful.
You are truth itself, and the muttered word would have
been other than it was, if you had not--! may I say,--had
you not already learned to love me?

You will feel, perhaps, that I ought to have said all this
to you then, and that a letter in such a matter is but
a poor substitute for a spoken assurance of affection.
You shall have the whole truth. Though I have long loved
you, I did not go down to Fawn Court with the purpose of
declaring to you my love. What I said to you was God's
truth; but it was spoken without thought at the moment. I
have thought of it much since;--and now I write to ask you
to be my wife. I have lived for the last year or two with
this hope before me; and now-- Dear, dear Lucy, I will not
write in too great confidence; but I will tell you that
all my happiness is in your hands.

If your answer is what I hope it may be, tell Lady Fawn at
once. I shall immediately write to Bobsborough, as I hate
secrets in such matters. And if it is to be so,--then I
shall claim the privilege of going to Fawn Court as soon
and as often as I please.

Yours ever and always,--if you will have me,--

F. G.

He sat for an hour at his desk, with his letter lying on the table,
before he left his chambers,--looking at it. If he should decide on
posting it, then would that life in Belgravia-cum-Pimlico,--of which
in truth he was very fond,--be almost closed for him. The lords and
countesses, and rich county members, and leading politicians, who
were delighted to welcome him, would not care for his wife; nor
could he very well take his wife among them. To live with them as
a married man, he must live as they lived;--and must have his own
house in their precincts. Later in