The letter ran: "MY VERY DEAR MARQUISE,--I do not doubt but that it will pleasure you to hear that I am on my way home, and that but for a touch of fever that has detained us here at La Rochette, I should be at Condillac as soon as the messenger who is the bearer of these presents.

A courier from Paris found me a fortnight since in Milan, with letters setting forth that my father had been dead six months, and that it was considered expedient at Court that I should return home forthwith to assume the administration of Condillac.

I am lost in wonder that a communication of this nature should have been addressed to me from Paris instead of from you, as surely it must have been your duty to advise me of my father's decease at the time of that untoward event.

I am cast down by grief at this evil news, and the summons from Court has brought me in all haste from Milan.
The lack of news from Condillac has been for months a matter of surprise to me.

My father's death may be some explanation of this, but scarcely explanation enough.