12 MARCH 1904, Page 17

Sm,—The above amusing article in the Spectator of February 27th

put me in mind of an old favourite, "The Claverings," by A. Trollope. There the widow-heroine tries to propose to her former lover. "She did write to him a completed note, offering herself and all that was hers for his acceptance. In doing so she strove hard to be honest and yet not over bold; to be affectionate and yet not un- feminine." After long meditation she burns it. "It was a fearful attempt she had thought of making. How could she have looked him in the face again had his answer to her been a refusal ?" There is a modern and somewhat similar incident in "Marcella," by Mrs. Hump hry Ward.—

I am, Sir, &c., C.