The letter from Lady Janet, which the Duchess took from the desk and
placed in Graham's hand, was in strange coincidence with the subject that
for the last twenty-four hours had absorbed his thoughts and tortured his
heart. Speaking of him in terms of affectionate eulogy, the writer
proceeded to confide her earnest wish that be should not longer delay
that change in life which, concentrating so much that is vague in the
desires and aspirations of man, leaves his heart and his mind, made
serene by the contentment of home, free for the steadfast consolidation
of their warmth and their light upon the ennobling duties that unite the
individual to his race.

"There is no one," wrote Lady Janet, "whose character and career a
felicitous choice in marriage can have greater influence over than this
dear adopted son of mine. I do not fear that in any case he will be
liable to the errors of his brilliant father. His early reverse of
fortune here seems to me one of those blessings which Heaven conceals in
the form of affliction. For in youth, the genial freshness of his gay
animal spirits, a native generosity mingled with desire of display and
thirst for applause, made me somewhat alarmed for his future. But,
though he still retains these attributes of character, they are no longer
predominant; they are modified and chastened. He has learned prudence.
But what I now fear most for him is that which he does not show in the
world, which neither Leopold nor you seem to detect,--it is an exceeding
sensitiveness of pride. I know not how else to describe it. It is so
interwoven with the highest qualities, that I sometimes dread injury to
them could it be torn away from the faultier ones which it supports.

"It is interwoven with that lofty independence of spirit which has made
him refuse openings the most alluring to his ambition; it communicates a