This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
By George Meredith
We do not advance very far in this second despatch, and it will be foundchiefly serviceable for the indications it affords of our General's skillin mining, and addiction to that branch of military science. For themoment I must beg that a little indulgence be granted to her.
'Purely business. Great haste. Something has happened. An event? Iknow not; but events may flow from it.
'A lady is here who has run away from the conjugal abode, and LadyJocelyn shelters her, and is hospitable to another, who is more concernedin this lady's sad fate than he should be. This may be morals, my dear:but please do not talk of Portugal now. A fine-ish woman with a greatdeal of hair worn as if her maid had given it one comb straight down andthen rolled it up in a hurry round one finger. Malice would say carrots.It is called gold. Mr. Forth is in a glass house, and is wrong to casthis sneers at perfectly inoffensive people.
'Perfectly impossible we can remain at Beckley Court together—if notdangerous. Any means that Providence may designate, I would employ. Itwill be like exorcising a demon. Always excuseable. I only ask a littlemore time for stupid Evan. He might have little Bonner now. I shouldnot object; but her family is not so good.
'Now, do attend. At once obtain a copy of Strike's Company people. Youunderstand—prospectuses. Tell me instantly if the Captain Evremonde init is Captain Lawson Evremonde. Pump Strike. Excuse vulgar words.Whether he is not Lord Laxley's half-brother. Strike shall be of use tous. Whether he is not mad. Captain E——'s address. Oh! when I thinkof Strike—brute! and poor beautiful uncomplaining Carry and hershoulder! But let us indeed most fervently hope that his Grace may bebalm to it. We must not pray for vengeance. It is sinful. Providencewill inflict that. Always know that Providence is quite sure to. Itcomforts exceedingly.
'Oh, that Strike were altogether in the past tense! No knowing what theDuke might do—a widower and completely subjugated. It makes my bosombound. The man tempts me to the wickedest Frenchy ideas. There!
We progress with dear venerable Mrs. Bonner. Truly pious—interested inyour Louisa. She dreads that my husband will try to convert me to hiscreed. I can but weep and say—never!
'I need not say I have my circle. To hear this ridiculous boy HarryJocelyn grunt under my nose when he has led me unsuspectingly away fromcompany—Harriet! dearest! He thinks it a sigh! But there is no timefor laughing.
'My maxim in any house is—never to despise the good opinion of thenonentities. They are the majority. I think they all look up to me.But then of course you must fix that by seducing the stars. Mydiplomatist praises my abilities—Sir John Loring my style—the restfollow and I do not withhold my smiles, and they are happy, and I shouldbe but that for ungrateful Evan's sake I sacrificed my peace by bindingmyself to a dreadful sort of half-story. I know I did not quite sa