days long past, none of them of interest except two from Sir Peter,
three from his mother, and one from Tom Bowles.

Sir Peter's were short. In the first he gently scolded Kenelm for
going away without communicating any address; and stated the
acquaintance he had formed with Gordon, the favourable impression that
young gentleman had made on him, the transfer of the L20,000 and the
invitation given to Gordon, the Traverses, and Lady Glenalvon. The
second, dated much later, noted the arrival of his invited guests,
dwelt with warmth unusual to Sir Peter on the attractions of Cecilia,
and took occasion to refer, not the less emphatically because as it
were incidentally, to the sacred promise which Kenelm had given him
never to propose to a young lady until the case had been submitted to
the examination and received the consent of Sir Peter. "Come to
Exmundham, and if I do not give my consent to propose to Cecilia
Travers hold me a tyrant and rebel."

Lady Chillingly's letters were much longer. They dwelt more
complainingly on his persistence in eccentric habits; so exceedingly
unlike other people, quitting London at the very height of the season,
going without even a servant nobody knew where: she did not wish to
wound his feelings; but still those were not the ways natural to a
young gentleman of station. If he had no respect for himself, he
ought to have some consideration for his parents, especially his poor
mother. She then proceeded to comment on the elegant manners of
Leopold Travers, and the good sense and pleasant conversation of
Chillingly Gordon, a young man of whom any mother might be proud.
From that subject she diverged to mildly querulous references to
family matters. Parson John had expressed himself very rudely to Mr.
Chillingly Gordon upon some book by a foreigner,--Comte or Count, or