Indeed, on the second occasion,
she urged on him strongly the ignominy of her position, and even
begged him to make a clean breast of it to his father, offering to
undertake the task herself. He refused equally warmly, and some sharp
words ensued to be, however, quickly followed by a reconciliation.
On his return from this second visit, Philip found a note signed
"affectionately yours, Maria Lee," waiting for him, which announced
that young lady's return, and begged him to come over to lunch on the
following day.
He went--indeed, he had no alternative but to go; and again fortune
favoured him in the person of a diffident young lady who was stopping
with Maria, and who never left her side all that afternoon, much to
the disgust of the latter and the relief of Philip. One thing,
however, he was not spared, and that was the perusal of Hilda's last
letter to her friend, written apparently from Germany, and giving a
lively description of the writer's daily life and the state of her
uncle's health, which, she said, precluded all possibility of her
return. Alas! he already knew its every line too well; for, as Hilda
refused to undertake the task, he had but a week before drafted it
himself.
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