This season became very irksome to Roland, who, at the first, had no
books to read save 'Claude Duval,'
'Dick Turpin,' 'The Lives of Forty Robbers,' and 'Sixteen-String
Jack.' But one day as The Lifter left the lair to go to Muddy York he
put a guinea in his hand and a slip of paper containing the titles of
certain books that he desired him to bring back. These were 'The
Abbot,' 'The Monastery,' 'Zanoni,' and 'Anson's Voyages.' He likewise
put a sealed letter into his hand directed to
'Miss Aster Atwell,
'Oaklands, York County.'
This letter has been placed into my hands. It is yellow now, and
worn so where folded that it makes eight different pieces when spread
out. But the writing is legible, and I transcribe its contents, which
were as follows:
'My Own Beloved Aster,
'I do not know how I ought to commence a letter to you, or in what
terms to write it. I do not know whether you share in the general
horror and detestation of my crime; or whether you look upon it as an
act forced upon me, an act unavoidable, in defence of my honour. The
blame for the lamentable occurrence, I feel, after long deliberation,
ought to be laid at my door; for I was too precipitate, and by my
haste no doubt provoked the insult.
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