to refuse, without absolutely making a party matter of it. I saw that it would be said that I, coming from Lady Lufton's parish, could not go to the Duke of Omnium's. This I did not choose.
"I find that I shall want a little more money before I leave here, five or ten pounds—say ten pounds. If you can not spare it, get it from Davis. He owes me more than that, a good deal.
"And now God bless and preserve you, my own love. Kiss my darling bairns for papa, and give them my blessing.
"Always and ever your own,
M. R."
And then there was written on an outside scrap which was folded round the full-written sheet of paper, "Make it as smooth at Framley Court as possible."
However strong, and reasonable, and unanswerable the body of Mark's letter may have been, all his hesitation, weakness, doubt, and fear were expressed in this short postscript.
And now, with my reader's consent, I will follow the postman with that letter to Framley; not by its own circuitous route indeed, or by the same mode of conveyance; for that letter went into Barchester by the Courcy night mail-cart, which, on its road, passes through the villages of Uffley and Chaldicotes, reaching Barchester in time for the up mail-train to London. By that train the letter was sent toward the metropolis as far as the junction of the Barset branch line, but there it was turned in its course, and came down again by the main line as far as Silverbridge; at which place, between six and seven in the morning, it was shouldered by the Framley footpost messenger, and in due course delivered at the Framley Parsonage exactly as Mrs. Robarts had finished reading prayers to the four servants. Or I should say rather that such would in its usual course have been that letter's destiny. As it was, however, it reached Silverbridge on Sunday, and lay there till the Monday, as the Framley people have declined their Sunday post. And then again, when the letter was delivered at the parsonage on that wet Monday morning, Mrs. Robarts was not at home. As we are all aware, she was staying with her ladyship at Framley Court.
"Oh, but it's mortial wet," said the shivering postman
