Well, Stubble and Spooney and the rest indulged in most romantic conjectures regarding this female correspondent of Osborne's--opining that it was a Duchess in London who was in love with him--or that it was a General's daughter, who was engaged to somebody else, and madly attached to him--or that it was a Member of Parliament's lady, who proposed four horses and an elopement--or that it was some other victim of a passion delightfully exciting, romantic, and disgraceful to all parties, on none of which conjectures would Osborne throw the least light, leaving his young admirers and friends to invent and arrange their whole history.

Well, Stubble and Spooney and the rest indulged in romantic conjectures about this female correspondent of Osborne's - saying that it was a Duchess who was in love with him, or a General's daughter, or some other victim of a passion delightfully exciting and disgraceful.
