r,--
very dear; and she thought that he had not been as yet convicted of any
conduct bad enough to force her to treat him as an outcast. Had there
been no Mrs Hurtle he would have been her 'Dearest Paul,'--but she made
her choice, and so commenced.

MY DEAR PAUL,

A strange report has come round to me about a lady called Mrs
Hurtle. I have been told that she is an American lady living in
London, and that she is engaged to be your wife. I cannot
believe this. It is too horrid to be true. But I fear,--I fear
there is something true that will be very very sad for me to
hear. It was from my brother I first heard it,--who was of
course bound to tell me anything he knew. I have talked to mamma
about it, and to my cousin Roger. I am sure Roger knows it
all;--but he will not tell me. He said,--"Ask himself." And so I
ask you. Of course I can write about nothing else till I have
heard about this. I am sure I need not tell you that it has made
me very unhappy. If you cannot come and see me at once, you had
better write. I have told mamma about this letter.

Then came the difficulty of the signature, with the declaration which
must naturally be attached to it. After some hesitation she subscribed
herself,

Your affectionate friend,

HENRIETTA CARBURY.

'Most affectionately your own Hetta' would have been the form in which
she would have wished to finish the first letter she had ever written
to him.

Paul received it at Liverpool on the Wednesday morning, and on the
Wednesday evening he was in Welbeck Street. He had been quite aware
that it had been incumbent on him to tell her the whole history of Mrs
Hurtle. He had meant to keep back--almost nothing. But it had been
impossible for him to do so on that one occasion on which he had
pleaded his love to her successfully. Let any reader who is
intelligent in such matters say whether it would have been possible
for him then to have commenced the story of Mrs Hurtle and to have
told it to the bitter end. Such a story must be postponed for a second
or third interview. Or it may, indeed, be communicated by letter. When
Paul was called away to Liverpool he did consider whether he should
write the story. But there are many reasons strong against such
written communications. A man may desire that the woman he loves
should hear the record of his folly,--so that, in after days, there
may be nothing to detect: so that, should th