had left London. She had gone down to Ongar Park, and, as far as the
woman at the house knew, intended to remain there till after Easter.
Harry had some undefined idea that she should not have taken such a step
without telling him. Had she not declared to him that he was her only
friend? When a friend is going out of town, leaving an only friend
behind, that friend ought to tell her only friend what she is going to
do, otherwise such a declaration of only-friendship means nothing. Such
was Harry Clavering's reasoning, and having so reasoned, he declared to
himself that it did mean nothing, and was very pressing to Florence
Burton to name an early day. He had been with Cecilia, he told her--he
had learned to call Mrs. Burton Cecilia in his letters--and she quite
agreed with him that their income would be enough. He was to have two
hundred a year from his father, having brought himself to abandon that
high-toned resolve which he had made some time since, that he would
never draw any part of his income from the parental coffers. His father
had again offered it, and he had accepted it. Old Mr. Burton was to add
a hundred, and Harry was of opinion that they could do very well.
Cecilia thought the same, he said, and therefore Florence surely would
not refuse. But Florence received, direct from Onslow Crescent Cecilia's
own version of her thoughts, and did refuse. It may be surmised that she
would have refused even without assistance from Cecilia, for she was a
young lady not of a fickle or changing disposition. So she wrote to
Harry with much care, and as her letter had some influence on the story
to be told, the reader shall read it--if the reader so pleases.

STRATTON, March, 186--.

DEAR HARRY: I received your letter this morning, and answer it at
once, because I know you will be impatient for an answer. You are
impatient about things--are you not? But it was a kind, sweet, dear,