– From the Reverend Decimus Brock to Ozias Midwinter Thursday. MY DEAR MIDWINTER, – No words can tell what a relief it was to me to get your letter this morning, and what a happiness I honestly feel in having been, thus far, proved to be in the wrong. The precautions you have taken in case the woman should still confirm my apprehensions by venturing herself at Thorpe-Ambrose, seem to me to be all that can be desired. You are no doubt sure to hear of her from one or other of the people in the lawyer’s office, whom you have asked to inform you of the appearance of a stranger in the town. I am the more pleased at finding how entirely I can trust you in this matter – for I am likely to be obliged to leave Allan’s interests longer than I supposed solely in your hands. My visit to Thorpe-Ambrose must, I regret to say, be deferred for two months. The only-one of my brother-clegymen in London, who is able to take my duty for me, cannot make it convenient to remove with his family to Somersetshire before that time.
