I don't believe Solomon was more convinced of the vanity of temporal affairs than I am; I lose all taste of this world, and I suffer myself to be bewitched by the charms of the spleen, though I know and foresee all the irremediable mischiefs arising from it.

I am insensibly fallen into the writing you a melancholy letter, after all my resolutions to the contrary; but I do not enjoin you to read it: make no scruple of flinging it into the fire at the first dull line.

Forgive the ill effects of my solitude, and think me as I am, "Ever yours." There was still hope in the hearts of Lady Mary and her husband that it might be possible to effect a reconciliation with Lord Dorchester.

Since apparently the Marquess was not directly approachable by either of them, they perforce had to seek an intermediary.

Such an one, they trusted at one time, would be one of Lady Mary's relatives, Lord Pierrepont of Hanslope.