She says she is following her letter, and is coming to have a serious talk with me.

Hang it all! Can't a man have a moment's peace ?" Colonel Bellairs tore out of an inner pocket a bulky letter in a bold, upright hand, marked _Private_, at the top.
"I wish to the devil she would mind her own business, and let me manage mine," he said pettishly, thrusting the letter at Magdalen.
"I don't like to read it, as it is marked 'Private.'" "Read it.

Read it," said Colonel Bellairs irritably.
Magdalen read the voluminous epistle tranquilly from beginning to end as she and her father walked slowly back to the house.
It was an able production, built up on a solid foundation.

It dealt with Colonel Bellairs' "obvious duty" with regard to the man to whom Magdalen had been momentarily engaged fifteen years before, and who, owing to two deaths in the Boer war, had unexpectedly succeeded to an earldom.
"Well! well!" said Colonel Bellairs at intervals, more interested than he wished to appear.

"What do you think of it?
We noticed in the papers a week ago that he had succeeded his cousin." "Wait a minute, father.