The Earl would have been utterly lost had he attempted to write a letter to his nephew without having something special to communicate to him.

But Lady Scroope was more facile with her pen, and it was rightly thought that the heir would hardly bring himself to look upon Scroope as his home, unless some link were maintained between himself and the place.

Lady Scroope therefore wrote once a week,--telling everything that there was to be told of the horses, the game, and even of the tenants.

She studied her letters, endeavouring to make them light and agreeable,--such as a young man of large prospects would like to receive from his own mother.

He was "Dearest Fred," and in one of those earliest written she expressed a hope that should any trouble ever fall upon him he would come to her as to his dearest friend.