Could you not find means to come over and see us--if only a flying visit?
Rotterdam is the route, and a few days would bring you to our quarters.

Hoping that you may feel so disposed, I have enclosed herewith a letter to the Horse Guards, which I trust may facilitate your obtaining leave of absence.

I know of no other mode of making your peace with the ladies, who are too highly incensed at your desertion to send one civil postscript to this letter; and Kilkee and myself are absolutely exhausted in our defence of you.

Believe me, yours truly, "Callonby." Had I received an official notification of my being appointed paymaster to the forces, or chaplain to Chelsea hospital, I believe I should have received the information with less surprise than I perused this letter -- that after the long interval which had elapsed, during which I had considered myself totally forgotten by this family, I should now receive a letter--and such a letter, too--quite in the vein of our former intimacy and good feeling, inviting me to their house, and again professing their willingness that I should be on the terms of our old familiarity--was little short of wonderful to me.

I read, too--with what pleasure ?--that slight mention of my cousin, whom I had so long regarded as my successful rival, but who I began now to hope had not been preferred to me.