Frank was a nice creature, so far as a man can be.

But all those horrid revelations that broke up our summer stay at Haslemere four years ago--when I ran away to you--gave me an utter disgust for marriage.

And what a life mine would have been if I had married him then; or after he went out to South Africa! _Ghastly_! Want of money would have made us hate one another and Frank would have been sure to become patronizing.

Because I was without a father in the legitimate way he would have thought he was conferring a great honour on me by marrying me, and would probably have expected me to drudge for him while he idled his time away....

Oh, when I think what a life I have led here, with you, full of interesting work and bright prospects, free from money anxieties--dearest, dearest Norie--I can't thank you enough.