Mr. Delamere was at that moment at Rome, in the course of making the usual tour of Europe, and was not expected to return to England for some months--perhaps for a year. But before quitting England, he had laid close siege to our beautiful Kate; and had, indeed, obtained from her a promise, that if ever she became any one's wife, it should be his. That their engagement was sanctioned most cordially by Lord and Lady De la Zouch--two persons of as generous and noble a spirit as breathed in the world--must have been long ago abundantly manifest to the reader; and they did not the less appreciate the value of the prize secured by their son, because of the proud and delicate sense which Miss Aubrey manifested, of the peculiarly trying position in which she stood with relation to them. Kate's own notion upon the subject was somewhat indefinite; she having resolved not to listen to any proposal for a union with Delamere, until her unfortunate brother's affairs had assumed a more cheering and satisfactory aspect; and that might not be for some years to come. If she replied to the letter from Delamere, enclosed by Lady De la Zouch--and reply she must, to acknowledge his brilliant present--it would be the first letter she had ever written to him, which will account, in a measure, for her exquisite embarrassment. And although all of them kept up a correspondence with Lord and Lady De la Zouch, they never, from obvious considerations of honorable delicacy and pride, gave the slightest intimation of the dreadful pressure which they were beginning daily to experience. Lord De la Zouch remained under the impression that Mr. Aubrey was struggling, it might be slowly, but still successfully, with his difficulties; and had made up his mind, when called upon, to pay, almost as a matter of course, the amount of the bond into which he had entered in Aubrey's behalf. As Aubrey desired evidently to maintain a reserve upon the subject of his private affairs, Lord De la Zouch, whatever might be his fears and suspicions, forbore to press his inquiries. How little, therefore, were either Lord and Lady De la Zouch, or their son, aware of the position in which their packet would find the Aubreys! Within a few days, Mr. Runnington, by duly completing special bail in the two actions of _Quirk and Others_ v. _Aubrey_, and _Titmouse_ v. _Aubrey_, had relieved Mr. Aubrey from all grounds of immediate personal apprehension for several months to come--in fact, for at least half a year; and on quitting Vivian Street, one evening, after announcing this satisfactory result of his labors, he slipped into Mr. Aubrey's hand, as he took leave of him at the door, a letter, which he desired Mr. Aubrey to read, and if he thought it worth while, to answer--at his leisure. Guess the emotions of lively gratitude with which he perused the following:-- "_Lincoln's Inn._