A MOMENTOUS COMMUNICATION 317 full name was Gregory Hilliard Hartley. He had always intended, when he had made a ‘position for himself, to recur to it, and of course it will be open to you to do so also ; but I know that it would ham been his wish that you, like him, should not do so unless you had made such a positionfor yourself that you would be a credit to it.

On starting, your father left me to decide whether I should go home. 1 imagine that the packet merely contains his mews on that subject. He knew what mine were. 1 would rather ham begged my bread than ham gone back to ask for alms of the man who treated his so7i so cruelly. It is probable that by this time the old man is dead / but 1 should object as much to ham to appeal to my husband's brother, a character I disliked. Although he knew that his father's means were small, he was extravagant to the last degree, and the old man was weak enough to keep himself in perpetual difficulties to satisfy his son. Yourfather looked for no pecuniary assistanceffiom his brother, hut the latter inight at least have come to see him or written kindly to him when he was in London. As your father was writing in his own name for magazines, his address could be easily found out by anyone who wanted to know it.

He never sent one single word to him, and I should object quite as much to appeal to him as to the old man. to the sisters, who were younger than my husband, they were nice girls; but even if your grandfather is dead, and has, as no doubt would he the case, left what he had between them, it certainly would not amount to much. Your father has told me that the old man had moidgaged the estate up to the hilt to pay his brother's debts, and that when it came to be sold, as it probably would be at his death, there would be very little left for the girls. Therefore, certainly I could not go and ask them to support us. My hope is, my dear boy, that you may be able to 7nake your way here in the same manner as your father was doing when he fell, and that same day you may attain to an honourable position, in which you will be able, if you visit England, to call upon your aunts, not as one who has