Then, as the priceless missives were handed to the feverishly expectant possessors, what sudden revulsions of feeling were apparent! Few had sufficient self-control to await the moment when the contents could be devoured in secrecy. But, standing about in all directions, could the recipients be descried with open letter and expressive features, relaxed, fixed, satisfied, overjoyed, relieved, despairing, according as the Fates had dealt the measure of weal or woe. At such a momentous ordeal, when his letters were given to Massinger, one came in the well-known hand of Mrs. Merivale, _née_ Branksome. Putting the collection into his pocket without trace of excitement, he wended his way to his tent, where, seating himself, he opened the envelope, and read as follows:-- "MY DEAR SIR ROLAND, "As Harry sees all your letters, and occasionally criticizes mine from a man's point of view (terribly wrong, as I always tell him), I may without indiscretion supply the possessive prefix. Sounds quite learned, doesn't it? Besides, ten--or is it not twelve?--thousand miles' distance prevents a hint of impropriety in our correspondence. After all this explanation, I proceed to say 'How do you do?' How are you getting on in that most unpleasant war, which would be ludicrous if it were not so dangerous, and into which you seem to have rushed for no conceivable reason, but because you disapprove and have no earthly interest connected with it? Talk of man being a rational being, indeed! "He often argues like one, but how rarely--almost never, indeed--does he _act_ in accordance with his theories! "However, like all decent Englishmen embarked in a quarrel, you are bound in honour to go through with it. The question which perplexes your friends--and you have a few, rather more than the average, indeed--is _why_ you should have gone into it at all. I am not going to say 'Que le diable, etc.'--by the way, I ought to have stopped at the 'Que'--but we all _think so_! "One exhausts one's self in trying to find a cause (reason, of course, there is none) for this effect; that is, for your migration to the 'other side of the world,' as Jean Ingelow has it in that dear song of hers. I have been reading German philosophy lately, and now know that you must go much further back than is generally thought necessary for people's tastes and dispositions, principles, and actions. "This, then, would be the formula. First, Hypatia's parents, or one of them, having, on account of some accidental family trait, bestowed upon her an abnormally altruistic nature. "Then they proceed to furnish her with a shamefully superior and unnecessary education, developing her intellect at the expense of her common sense, so that she feels herself vowed to the social advancement of the masses (as if they are not even now unpleasantly close to the classes). This by the way.