'From the very delicate nature of the disclosures, Lord Wariston felt
the great importance of obtaining all necessary results without making
them public; and, actuated by these feelings, he applied to me, both
as your nearest relative, and an acquaintance of Sir Lucius, and, as he
expressed it, and I may be permitted to repeat, as one whose experience
in the management of difficult and delicate negotiations was not
altogether unknown, in order that I might be put in possession of the
facts of the case, advise and perhaps interfere for the common good.
'Under these circumstances, and taking into consideration the extreme
difficulty attendant upon a satisfactory arrangement of the affair,
I thought fit, in confidence, to apply to Arundel, whose talents I
consider of the first order, and only equalled by his prudence and calm
temper. As a relation, too, of more than one of the parties concerned,
it was perhaps only proper that the correspondence should be submitted
to him.
'I am sorry to say, my dear George, that Arundel behaved in a very
odd manner, and not at all with that discretion which might have been
expected both from one of his remarkably sober and staid disposition,
and one not a little experienced in diplomatic life.
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