How sad to see the decay of the faculties with advancing age! It is a matter of grave anxiety to consider how much longer poor Lady Janet can be trusted to manage her own affairs.

I shall take an opportunity of touching on the matter delicately when I next see her lawyer.
"I am straying from my subject.

And--is it not strange ?--I am writing to you as confidentially as if we were old friends.
"To return to Julian Gray.

Innocent of instigating his aunt's first visit to the Refuge, he is guilty of having induced her to go there for the second time the day after I had dispatched my last letter to you.
Lady Janet's object on this occasion was neither more nor less than to plead her nephew's cause as humble suitor for the hand of Mercy Merrick.
Imagine the descent of one of the oldest families in England inviting an adventuress in a Refuge to honor a clergyman of the Church of England by becoming his wife! In what times do we live! My dear mother shed tears of shame when she heard of it.

How you would love and admire my mother! "I dined at Mablethorpe House, by previous appointment, on the day when Lady Janet returned from her degrading errand.
"'Well ?' I said, waiting, of course, until the servant was out of the room.
"'Well,' Lady Janet answered, 'Julian was quite right.' "'Quite right in what ?' "'In saying that the earth holds no nobler woman than Mercy Merrick.' "'Has she refused him again ?' "'She has refused him again.' "'Thank God!' I felt it fervently, and I said it fervently.