P.S. I have reason to believe that Clifton is more seriously offended
than I ever knew him before. When I refused going to the play with him,
he persisted in saying I might change my mind before night, and that he
would come again in that hope. His manner of parting with me, after
being told Frank was entrusted with a business which we had not dared
confide to him, was, as I have described, unusual, and accompanied with
more coldness and reserve than either of us had ever before assumed. It
is now eight o'clock, and I have not seen him since. If he have
resolution enough to keep away the whole evening, which I suspect he
will have, the proof of the truth of my conjectures will be
indubitable.
I know not, when he comes to hear the business, whether he will be
convinced that he was less proper to transact it than Frank; otherwise
I should not be sorry, could he but certainly feel himself wrong: for
it is by a repetition of such lessons that the good we intend must be
effected.
Be it as it will, let us neither recede nor slacken our endeavours. I
suspect that every worthy task must be a task of difficulty, and often
of danger.