"My mother and sisters, in the event of your returning to England,
desire me to say that it will afford them the greatest pleasure to make
your acquaintance. Sympathizing with me, they do not forget what you too
have suffered. A warm welcome awaits you when you pay your first visit
at our house. Most truly yours, "HORACE HOLMCROFT."
From MISS GRACE ROSEBERRY to MR. HORACE HOLMCROFT.
"DEAR MR. HOLMCROFT--I snatch a few moments from my other avocations to
thank you for your most interesting and delightful letter. How well you
describe, how accurately you judge! If Literature stood a little higher
as a profession, I should almost advise you--but no! if you entered
Literature, how could _you_ associate with the people whom you would be
likely to meet?
"Between ourselves, I always thought Mr. Julian Gray an overrated man.
I will not say he has justified my opinion. I will only say I pity him.
But, dear Mr. Holmcroft, how can you, with your sound judgment, place
the sad alternatives now before him on the same level? To die in Green
Anchor Fields, or to fall into the clutches of that vile wretch--is
there any comparison between the two? Better a thousand times die at the
post of duty than marry Mercy Merrick.
"As I have written the creature's name, I may add--so as to have all the
sooner done with the subject--that I shall look with anxiety for your
next letter. Do not suppose that I feel the smallest curiosity about
this degraded and designing woman. My interest in her is purely
religious. To persons of my devout turn of mind she is an awful warning.
When I feel Satan near me--it will be _such_ a means of grace to think
of Mercy Merrick!
"Poor Lady Janet! I noticed those signs of mental decay to which you
so feelingly allude at the last interview I had with her in Mablethorpe
House. If you can find an opportunity, will you say that I wish her
well, here and hereafter? and will you please add that I do not omit to
remember her in my prayers?
"There is just a chance of my visiting England toward the close of
the autumn. My fortunes have changed since I wrote last. I have been
received as reader and companion by a lady who is the wife of one of
our high judicial functionaries in this part of the world. I do not take
much interest in _him_; he is what they call a 'self-made man.' His wife
is charming. Besides being a person of highly intellectual tastes, she
is greatly her husband's superior--as you will understand when I tell
you that she is related to the Gommerys of Pommery; _not_ the Pommerys
of Gommery, who (as your knowledge of our old families will inform you)
only claim kindred with the younger branch of that ancient race.