y way
down, perhaps, you will meet me at Nottingham, and come over with
me here. I need not say that nothing will give me greater pleasure.
I must, of course, reform thoroughly; and, seriously, if I can
contribute to her happiness, I shall secure my own. She is so good
a person, that--that--in short, I wish I was a better. Ever," &c.

[Footnote 49: On the day of the arrival of the lady's answer, he was
sitting at dinner, when his gardener came in and presented him with his
mother's wedding ring, which she had lost many years before, and which
the gardener had just found in digging up the mould under her window.
Almost at the same moment, the letter from Miss Milbanke arrived; and
Lord Byron exclaimed, "If it contains a consent, I will be married with
this very ring." It did contain a very flattering acceptance of his
proposal, and a duplicate of the letter had been sent to London, in case
this should have missed him.--_Memoranda_.]

* * * * *

LETTER 202. TO THE COUNTESS OF * * *.

"Albany, October 5. 1814.

"Dear Lady * *,

"Your recollection and invitation do me great honour; but I am
going to be 'married, and can't come.' My intended is two hundred
miles off, and the moment my business here is arranged, I must set
out in a great hurry to be happy. Miss Milbanke is the good-natured
person who has undertaken me, and, of course, I am very much in
love, and as silly as all single gentlemen must be in that
sentimental situation. I have been accepted these three weeks; but
when the event will take place, I don't exactly know. It depends
partly upon lawyers, who are never in a hurry. One can be sure of
nothing; but, at present, there appears no other interruption to
this intention, which seems as mutual as possible, and now no
secret, though I did not tell first,--and all our relatives are
congratulating away to right and left in the most fatiguing manner.

"You perhaps know the lady. She is niece to Lady Melbourne, and
cousin to Lady Cowper and others of your acquaintance, and has no
fault, except being a great deal too good for me, and that _I_
must pardon, if nobody else should. It might have been _two_ years
ago, and, if it had, would have saved me a world of trouble. She
has employed the interval in refusing about half a dozen of my
particular frie