"We have both need of forgiveness—you have mine. I know I am not young enough to be loved by you:
Durum! sed levius fit patientia
Quidquid corrigere est nefas,
as our favourite says—not that the quotation is very good. But if you can have patience, as I can have; if you can forget all 'incompatibilities,' and live quietly and not unhappily with me, come back again, and all shall be forgotten. I will do my best to make you happy, I promise that nothing of what has passed shall ever be recurred to. You shall again be mistress of my house and fortune.
"But I do not wish to force you even to this. If, on deliberate reflection, you think you cannot live comfortably with me, I have given instructions to Messrs. Barton and Hadley to remit you, wherever you may choose to reside, eight hundred pounds a year. Upon this you can live in all comfort in France. With every wish for your happiness,
"Believe me, my dear Wife,
"Yours affectionately,
"H. S. MEREDITH VYNER."
This letter never reached Mrs. Vyner. Believing that her application had been treated with the silent scorn it deserved, she left the town, and toiled her way to a neighbouring town, where a young woman, formerly one of her maids, kept a small magazin de modes, and offered a temporary asylum. There she endeavoured to earn a subsistence by teaching English; and at first, success crowned her efforts; but having been recognised by an English traveller spending a few days there, the fact of her having eloped from her husband became bruited about, and all her pupils left her.
She was forced to quit the place, and to seek refuge and oblivion in Paris. What bitter humiliations, and what severe trials, she had there to undergo may be readily conceived. A mystery hangs over her fate; she was seen once on the Boulevard du Temple, miserably dressed, and so aged by suffering, that every trace of beauty had disappeared; but nothing has since been heard of her.
Concerning the other persons of this tale, I have few particulars to add.
Mrs. Langley Turner has married Lord ——, and now gives as many parties as before, only they are fearfully dull: perhaps because so much more "select;" for it is a very serious truth, that your high people are anything but entertaining.
Frank Forrester has seen many ups and downs; but the last time I saw him, his cab splashed me with mud as I lounged down St. James's-street.