It was in the early part of 1839, that King Leopold first wrote seriously to his niece on the subject--about the same time that we have seen that he made a similar verbal communication to his nephew. He received a favourable response from both, but with this difference, that the lady craved an indefinite delay. This idea of delay the Prince dealt with in a very honest and manly manner. He had, he said, no objections to postponement; but, nevertheless, thought he had a fair right, if he were to keep himself free, and thereby be compelled to decline any other career or line of life which might open itself out to him, to have some definite assurance or understanding that the engagement would be without doubt contracted. This concession, however, the equally natural bashfulness of the Queen would not suffer her to make. However, all came right in the end, and the Queen has very candidly confessed in her riper years, that if she had known as a girl what she afterwards learned as a woman, that she even seemed to be _playing_ with her somewhat undemonstrative but not the less devoted lover, she would not have exacted the semi-sacrifice which the Prince's self-respect caused him to feel uneasy at, but to which the true courtesy of his nature induced him to submit. He _did_ wait till 1839, but the Queen afterwards learned that he came to England in that year prepared to declare that, in the case of further postponement, he must decline to consider himself bound in any way for the future. [Sidenote: FIRST MEETING WITH PRINCE ALBERT.]