"You say you have heard 'whispers and more than whispers in London.' You imply about Rose, and I cannot pretend not to understand. "I, too, have been made aware (in what extraordinary fashion, more subtle than words, is scandal communicated!) of various rumours. Remember that I have not seen Rose since I was last in town, six months ago, and then only amid the distractions of a gay season. Laughter passed between us, little else. You will recall the charming laughter of Rose. My prayer is that its gaiety may never be quenched, as--ah!--I fear it may be. I must repeat--(here give me credit for a pause of earnest thought)--that I know nothing. "If youth, beauty, race, talents, a fine name, the most winning manners, the sweetest temper, the lightest spirits are to be ruined by the common lures of the world, if ordinary vices are to tarnish a character so bright---- "But--no, I will not think it, nor must you. Remember Rose as all nobility, virtue, and discretion, the sweetest gentleman in England. "Marius comes home to-night. His letters read full of a sparkling pleasure in the incidents of the tour. I fear he has not spared money; I dread the moment when he must be made aware how perilously near the limit of our fortunes we all live. Hideous subject! Even to you I shrink from putting the word on paper, but I anticipate that this lack of money will mean trouble for both Rose and Marius. The Lyndwoods were ever thriftless. I remember my sweet mother losing £300 at faro; the silk dress she wore, unpaid for, and my father having to sell the silver plate to pay her page and her carriage. I recall other scenes, but all taken with a smile on my mother's part--like Rose! "Aunt Agatha says (as you must have heard her) that my mother's death alone saved my father from ruin, which seems to me a dreadful thing. Reflecting on it, I think of these two cousins of mine. Imagine Rose or Marius without money--impossible, is it not? Yet I know of mortgages, of encumbered estates. "Still, I must not play the pedant; I am not the monitor of the Lyndwoods nor any wiser than they. And Marius comes home to-night. We had hoped Rose would be here to meet him; but, no. He comes to-morrow, full of eagerness, his note reads, to see us all again. Yet I fear they will both find Lyndwood dull, and it will be but a while before their poor cousin is waving them farewell again. "I must tell you (perceive that this epistle alters with the current of my thoughts) that Marius visited Genoa and saw the Lyndwood property, which is of but little value, he writes, since the whole town has fallen into neglect and decay. "I notice that Aunt Agatha is rising, and I must follow her to see that Marius's chamber is ready and the table set with flowers. So _au revoir_, my friend, and remember I await your letters with impatience.--Ever your faithful "SUSANNAH CHRESSHAM. "LYNDWOOD HOLT, LYNDWOOD IN THE COUNTY OF KENT, _June 17, 1748_."