wise nor ought I to do otherwise), so far was he from being reluctant to agree to it that he actually expressed his delight, but he regretted that they had no written instructions on the matter, as their friendly relations not unreasonably entitled him to expect. For perhaps the girl’s mother will come forward, though she has not come forward as yet, and her wishes about the handing over of her daughter naturally have, in my opinion, precedence over all others, unless the girl is by that time of an age to have a more legitimate claim to choose for herself what she wants. Take this point too into consideration, my true friend, that if supreme and undivided power over her marriage were entrusted to me and she herself, if of age and desirous of marrying, left me free, with God as my Judge, to give her hand to the one I desired, then I declare, and declare with sincerity, my satisfaction with the condition you suggest, provided that, because of God my Judge, I should not be repudiating a better one; but whether a better one will turn up, is naturally uncertain. So your Charity will see how many considerations conspire to make it quite impossible for me at present to promise her to anyone.

I have torn myself away from my many preoccupations1 (or rather have slipped away and, so to