(Second Answer.)_
“Richmond, Wednesday Night.
“DEAR OLD LOVE--Keep the seven-and-twenty shillings, and burn my other
letter. I have changed my mind.
“I wrote the first time after a horrible night. I write this time after
a ride on horseback, a tumbler of claret, and the breast of a chicken.
Is that explanation enough? Please say Yes, for I want to go back to my
piano.
“No; I can’t go back yet; I must answer your question first. But are you
really so very simple as to suppose that I don’t see straight through
you and your letter? You know that the major’s difficulty is our
opportunity as well as I do; but you want me to take the responsibility
of making the first proposal, don’t you? Suppose I take it in your
own roundabout way? Suppose I say, ‘Pray don’t ask me how I propose
inflaming Mr. Armadale and extinguishing Miss Milroy; the question is
so shockingly abrupt I really can’t answer it. Ask me, instead, if it is
the modest ambition of my life to become Miss Milroy’s governess?’ Yes,
if you please, Mrs. Oldershaw, and if you will assist me by becoming my
reference.
“There it is for you! If some serious disaster happens (which is quite
possible), what a comfort it will be to remember that it was all my
fault!
“Now I have done this for you, will you do something for me. I want to
dream away the little time I am likely to have left here in my own way.
Be a merciful Mother Oldershaw, and spare me the worry of looking at
the Ins and Outs, and adding up the chances For and Against, in this new
venture of mine. Think for me, in short, until I am obliged to think for
myself.
“I had better not write any more, or I shall say something savage that
you won’t like. I am in one of my tempers to-night. I want a husband to
vex, or a child to beat, or something of that sort. Do you ever like to
see the summer insects kill themselves in the candle? I do, sometimes.
Good-night, Mrs. Jezebel. The longer you can leave me here the better.
The air agrees with me, and I am looking charmingly.
“L. G.”