If he should decide on posting it, then would that life in Belgravia-cum-Pimlico,--of which in truth he was very fond,--be almost closed for him.

The lords and countesses, and rich county members, and leading politicians, who were delighted to welcome him, would not care for his wife; nor could he very well take his wife among them.

To live with them as a married man, he must live as they lived;--and must have his own house in their precincts.

Later in life, he might possibly work up to this;--but for the present he must retire into dim domestic security and the neighbourhood of Regent's Park.

He sat looking at the letter, telling himself that he was now, at this moment, deciding his own fate in life.