None came; but, next morning I received back my own despatch enclosed in another envelope, unopened, unread.
I went down to the office that day in quite a cheerful mood again, I can tell you!
How I did enjoy Brown’s balderdash; the witty sallies of Smith; Robinson’s repartees; Jones’ jocosities!
When, after my official labours, I returned again to Saint Canon’s that evening, I made another attempt to see Mrs Clyde.
No. The servant who answered the door, when I timidly called for the third time at the house, told me that instructions had been given to say “not at home” always to me.
Pleasant!
War had been declared:—a “guerre à outrance,” as I had anticipated; but, it was a struggle in which I was stretched on the ground at my adversary’s mercy, with her vengeful blade at my heart!
I then wrote to Min.
It was a long letter. I bewailed my hasty severance of the old relations between us, and asked her to have pity on my sad fate. I poured out all the flood of feeling which had deluged my breast since we had parted at the party. I begged, I implored her not to desert me at her mother’s bidding.
My letter I posted, so that it should not be stopped en route, and returned to me unread by my darling, whom I asked to write to me, if only one line, to tell me that she had really received my appeal safely—requesting her, also, to reply to me at my office that I might get her answer in the soonest possible time.