“LADY BASSETT--I thank you for writing to me at this moment, when I am weighed down by slander. Your own character stands so high that you would not deign to write to me if you believed the abuse that has been lavished on me. With you I deplore this family feud. It is not of my seeking; and as for this lawsuit, it is one in which the plaintiff is really the defendant. Sir Charles has written a defamatory letter, which has closed every house in this county to his victim. If, as I now feel sure, you disapprove the libel, pray persuade him to retract it. The rest our lawyers can settle, “Yours very respectfully, “RICHARD BASSETT.” When Lady Bassett read this, she saw she had an adroit opponent. Yet she wrote again: “MR. BASSETT--There are limits to my influence with Sir Charles. I have no power to make him say one word against his convictions. “But my lawyer tells me you seek pecuniary compensation for an affront. I offer you, out of my own means, which are ample, that which you seek--offer it freely and heartily; and I honestly think you had better receive it from me than expose yourself to the risks and mortifications of a public trial. “I am, yours obediently, “BELLA BASSETT.” “LADY BASSETT--You have fallen into a very natural error. It is true I sue Sir Charles Bassett for money; but that is only because the law allows me my remedy in no other form. What really brings me into court is the defense of my injured honor. How do you meet me? You say, virtually, 'Never mind your character: here is money.' Permit me to decline it on such terms. “A public insult cannot be cured in private. “Strong in my innocence, and my wrongs, I court what you call the risks of a public trial. “Whatever the result, _you_ have played the honorable and womanly part of peacemaker; and it is unfortunate for your husband that your gentle influence is limited by his vanity, which perseveres in a cruel slander, instead of retracting it while there is yet time. “I am, madam, yours obediently, “RICHARD BASSETT.” “MR. BASSETT--I retire from a correspondence which appears to be useless, and might, if prolonged, draw some bitter remark from me, as it has from you. “After the trial, which you court and I deprecate, you will perhaps review my letters with a more friendly eye. “I am, yours obediently, “BELLA BASSETT.” In this fencing-match between a lawyer and a lady each gained an advantage. The lawyer's letters, as might have been expected, were the best adapted to be read to a jury; but the lady, subtler in her way, obtained, at a small sacrifice, what she wanted, and that without raising the slightest suspicion of her true motive in the correspondence. She announced her success to Mr. Oldfield; but, in the midst of it, she quaked with terror at the thought of what Sir Charles would say to her for writing to Mr. Bassett at all.