the portrait he has just taken of me.  I make the reserve, instead of giving it to you now, because it is possible that he might wish (I know he does) to paint one for himself, and if I be dead before sitting to him again, the present one would serve him to copy.  Mr. Bentley wanted to purchase it, and many have wanted it, but it shall be for you.

Now, my very dear friend, I am afraid that Mr. ——­ has said or done something that would make you rather come here alone.  His last letter to me, after a month’s silence, was odd.  There was no fixing upon line or word; still it was not like his other letters, and I suppose the air of ——­ is not genial, and yet dear Mr. Bennoch breathes it often!  You must know that I never could have meant for one instant to impose him upon you as a companion.  Only in the autumn there had been a talk of his joining your party.  He knows Mr. Bennoch....  He has been very kind and attentive to me, and is, I verily believe, an excellent and true-hearted person; and so I was willing that, if all fell out well, he should have the pleasure of your society here,—­the rather that I am sometimes so poorly, and always so helpless now, that one who knows the place might be of use.  But to think that for one moment I would make your time or your wishes bend to his is out of the question.  Come at your own time, as soon and as often as you can.  I should say this to any one going away three thousand miles off, much more to you, and forgive my having even hinted at his coming too.  I only did it thinking it might fix you and suit you.  In this view I wrote to him yesterday, to tell him that on Wednesday next there would be a cricket-match at Bramshill, one of the finest old mansions in England, a Tudor Manor House, altered by Inigo Jones, and formerly the residence of Prince Henry, the elder son of James the First.  In the grand old park belonging to that grand old place, there will be on that afternoon a cricket-match.  I thought you would like to see our national game in a scene so perfectly well adapted to show it to advantage.  Being in Mr. Kingsley’s parish, and he very intimate with the owner, it is most likely, too, that he will be there; so that altogether it seemed to me something that you and dear Mr. and Mrs. Bennoch might like to see.  My poor little pony could take you from hence; but not to fetch or carry you, and if the dear Bennochs come, it would be advisable to let the flymen know the place of destination, because, Sir William Cope being a new-comer, I am not sure whether he (like his predecessor, whom I knew) allows horses and carriages to be put up there.  I should like you to look on for half an hour at a cricket-match in Bramshill Park, and to be with you at a scene so English and so beautiful.  We could dine here afterwards, the Great Western allowing till a quarter before nine in the evening.  Contrive this if you can, and let me know by return of post, and forgive my mal addresse about