'Yes, I'm afraid they are. And it's so stupid, and I'm so vexed. I don't want to have anything to do with him, as I told you long ago.' Louise often used expressions which to a stranger would have implied that her intimacy with Mrs. Mumford was of years' standing. 'He wrote for the first time last week. Such a silly letter! I wish you would read it. Well, he said that it was all over between him and Cissy, and that he cared only for me, and always had, and always would--you know how men write. He said he considered himself quite free. Cissy had refused him, and wasn't that enough? Now that I was away from home, he could write to me, and wouldn't I let him see me? Of course I wrote that I didn't _want_ to see him, and I thought he was behaving very badly--though I don't really think so, because it's all that idiot Cissy's fault. Didn't I do quite right?' 'I think so.' 'Very well. And now he's writing again, you see; oh, such a lot of rubbish! I can hear him saying it all through his nose. Do tell me what I ought to do next.' 'You must either pay no attention to the letter, or reply so that he can't possibly misunderstand you.' 'Call him names, you mean?' 'My dear Louise!' 'But that's the only way with such men. I suppose you never were bothered with them. I think I'd better not write at all.' Emmeline approved this course, and soon left Miss Derrick to her reflections. The next day Louise carried out her resolve to write for information regarding the progress of things at Coburg Lodge. She had not long to wait for a reply, and it was of so startling a nature that she ran at once to Mrs. Mumford, whom she found in the nursery. 'Do please come down. Here's something I must tell you about. What do you think mother says? I've to go back home again at once.' 'What's the reason?' Emmeline inquired, knowing not whether to be glad or sorry.