"DEAR MIDGETINA,--When this will reach you, I don't know. But somehow I cannot, or rather I can, imagine you the cynosure of the complete peerage, and prefer that my poor little letter should not uprear its modest head in the midst of all that Granjer. You may not agree--but if a few weeks of a High Life that may possibly continue into infinity has made _no_ difference to you, then Fanny is not among the prophets.
"We have not met since--we parted. But did you ever know a "dead past" bury itself with such ingratiating rapidity? Have you in your sublime passion for Nature ever watched a Sexton Beetle? But, mind you, I have helped. The further all that slips away, the less I can see I was to blame for it. What's in your blood needs little help from outside. Cynical it may sound; but imagine the situation if I _had_ married him! What could existence have been but a Nightmare-Life-in-Death? (_Vide_ S. T. Coleridge). Now the Dream continues--for us both.
"Oh, yes, I can see your little face needling up at this. But you must remember, dear Midgetina, that you will never, never be able to see things in a truly human perspective. Few people, of course, try to. You do. But though your view may be delicate as gossamer and clear as a glass marble, it can't be full-size. Boil a thing down, it isn't the _same_. What remains has the virtues of an essence, but not the volume of its origin. This sounds horribly _school-booky_; but I am quite convinced you are too concentrated. And I being what I am, only the full volume can be my salvation. Enough. The text is as good as the sermon--far better, in fact.
"Now I am going to be still more callous. My own little private worries have come right--been made to. I'm tit for tat, that is, and wiser for it beyond words. Some day, when Society has taught you all its lessons, I will explain further. Anyhow, first I send you back £3 of what I owe you. And thank you. Next I want you to find out from Mrs Mummery (as mother calls her--or did), if among her distinguished acquaintance she knows any one with one or two, or at most three, small and adorable children who need an excellent governess. Things have made it undesirable for me to stay on here much longer. It shall be I who give notice, or, shall we say, terminate the engagement.