Throughout her whole letter she was struggling to tell him once again
of her love, and yet to do it in some way of which she need not be
ashamed. It was not till she had come to the last words that she
could force her pen to speak of her affection, and then the words did
not come freely as she would have had them. She knew that he would
not come to Loughlinter. She felt that were he to do so he could come
only as a suitor for her hand, and that such a suit, in these early
days of her widowhood, carried on in her late husband's house, would
be held to be disgraceful. As regarded herself, she would have faced
all that for the sake of the thing to be attained. But she knew
that he would not come. He had become wise by experience, and would
perceive the result of such coming,--and would avoid it. His answer
to her letter reached Loughlinter before she did:--
Great Marlborough Street,
Monday night.
DEAR LADY LAURA,--
I should have called in the Square last night, only that
I feel that Lady Chiltern must be weary of the woes of so
doleful a person as myself.
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