Nevertheless, he could not quite give up all hope. Another opportunity offered, and he made another effort--but there was not very much conviction in it, and it was immediately crushed. 'My dear Uncle,' the Queen wrote, 'I have to thank you for your last letter, which I received on Sunday. Though you seem not to dislike my political sparks, I think it is better not to increase them, as they might finally take fire, particularly as I see with regret that upon this one subject we cannot agree. I shall, therefore, limit myself to my expressions of very sincere wishes for the welfare and prosperity of Belgium.'[50] After that, it was clear that there was no more to be said. Henceforward there is audible in the King's letters a curiously elegiac note. 'My dearest Victoria, your _delightful_ little letter has just arrived and went like _an arrow to my heart_. Yes, my beloved Victoria! I do love you tenderly ... I love you _for yourself_, and I love in you the dear child whose welfare I tenderly watched.' He had gone through much; yet, if life had its disappointments, it had its satisfactions too. 'I have all the honours that can be given, and I am, politically speaking, very solidly established.' But there were other things besides politics; there were romantic yearnings in his heart. 'The only longing I still have is for the Orient, where I perhaps shall once end my life, rising in the west and setting in the east.' As for his devotion to his niece, that could never end. 'I never press my services on you, nor my councils, though I may say with some truth that from the extraordinary fate which the higher powers {79} had ordained for me, my experience, both political and of private life, is great. I am _always ready_ to be useful to you _when and where_ it may be, and I repeat it, _all I want in return is some little sincere affection from you_.'[51] VI