'There really is quite a sensation about it, my dear Eleanor,' wrote Mrs. Chadwick; 'for it appears the Duchess of Matlock used to have a very bad opinion of Lord Forestfield, and always said he drove our poor darling friend to all that happened by his brutal neglect. So that people _do_ think it is a little inconsistent of her to let Lady Amabel marry him, especially as the Duchess is so very evangelical,--family prayers, tracts in the kitchen, and lots of 'Low' curates to luncheon; you know exactly the sort of thing. Mr. Pratt, who really is wonderfully faithful to you in a reflected kind of way--for he's constantly here--told me all about it on Sunday. And he says it's the coal-mine. I don't know whether I told you, by the bye, that coal has been found in a small place of Lord F.'s in the North, and he is going to be ever so rich. Of course I don't quite believe _that_--one can't, you know, believe a thing of that kind about the dear Duchess--but it is quite certain that Lord F. was never invited to Matlock Park until the rumour of the coal got about; and in three weeks Lady Amabel was engaged to him. The Duchess despises all these rumours; _she_ says it is not coal, but conversion, and that she is thankful her dear Amabel has been chosen by Providence to confirm a repentant sinner in grace. I hope it will be all right; but I could not help thinking of poor Lady Forestfield in her beauty and youth, and regretting he had not repented in _her_ time. Lady Amabel is hideous, _I_ think, and they say she has a violent temper. I hope it is true. The Duchess went to Woodburn the other day, and had every trace of poor Lady F. removed; all her boudoir furniture and a number of pictures have been sold by auction, and that good little Mr. Pratt has bought a lot of both for Sir Nugent; and he declares the Duchess speaks of the poor thing as "that unhappy person whom, of course, we cannot name." Lady Amabel will take her name cheerfully enough, and her place too. James says, "What a blessing the poor thing left no children, to suffer for her misdeeds after her death at the hands of so eminent a Christian as Lady Amabel." I daresay she isn't so bad after all, but James cannot endure that kind of religion. The wedding is to come off in three weeks, at Matlock, and Mr. Pratt says they are already getting the Duke into training, in order that he may _look_ sober, or a least _not too drunk_, on the occasion.' THE END. -------------------------------------------------------------- Woodfall & Kinder, Printers, 70 to 76, Long Acre, London, W.C. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Two, by Tricks, by Edmund Yates