eorge, my boy, you have dashed
off with a prize, and no mistake. I've never made any secret, you
know, of my admiration for Honora--I hope I may call her so now.
And I just thought I'd tell you you could count on me for a friend
at court. Not that I'm any use now, old boy. I'll have to be frank
with you--I always was. Discreet silence, and all that sort of
thing: as much as my head is worth to open my mouth. But I had an
idea it would be an act of friendship to let you know how things
stand. Let time and works speak, and Cecil will give the thing
a push at the proper moment. I understand from one of the
intellectual journals I read that you have gone in for simple life
and scientific farming. A deuced canny move. And for the love of
heaven, old man, keep it up for a while, anyhow. I know it's
difficult, but keep it up. I speak as a friend.

"They received your letters all right, announcing your marriage.
You always enjoyed a row--I wish you could have been on hand to see
and hear this one. It was no place for a man of peace, and I spent
two nights at the club. I've never made any secret, you know, of
the fact that I think the Pendleton connection hide-bound. And you
understand Bessie--there's no good of my explaining her. You'd have
thought divorce a brand-new invention of the devil, instead of a
comparatively old institution. And if you don't mind my saying so,
my boy, you took this fence a bit on the run, the way you do
everything.

"The fact is, divorce is going out of fashion. Maybe it's because
the Pendleton-Grenfell element have always set their patrician faces
against it; maybe its been a bit overdone. Most people who have
tried it have discovered that the fire is no better than the frying-
pan--both hot as soon as they warm up. Of course, old boy, there's
nothing personal in this. Sit tight, and stick to the simple life--
that's your game as I see it. No news--I've never known things to
be so quiet. Jerry won over two thousand night before last--he made
it no trumps in his own hand four times running.

"Yours,

"CECIL."

Honora returned this somewhat unique epistle to her husband, and he
crushed it. There was an ill-repressed, terrifying savagery in the act,
and her heart was torn between fear and pity for this lone message of
good-will. Whatever its wording, such it was. A dar