oy, like the desert
air which travellers will tell you fills men as with wine to be able
thus to sit an hour, and with a smile to watch them pass, lame and
blind, in all the rags of their deserved misfortunes, can you not
conceive, dear Madame, how that must be for such as I a comfort?
Whatever one may say, it is sweet, from a position of security, to watch
the sufferings of others; it gives one a good sensation in the heart.

In writing this, I recollect that I myself once had the chance of
passing all my life in this enviable safety, and as you may suppose,
dear Madame, I curse myself that I should ever have had the courage to
step beyond the boundaries of this fine tranquil state. Yet, too, there
have been times when I have asked myself: "Do we really differ from the
wealthy--we others, birds of the fields, who have our own philosophy,
grown from the pains of needing bread--we who see that the human heart
is not always an affair of figures, or of those good maxims that one
finds in copy-books--do we really differ?" It is with shame that I
confess to have asked myself a question so heretical. But now, when for
these four weeks I have had the fortune of this rest beneath your roof,
I see how wrong I was to entertain such doubts. It is a great happiness
to have decided once for all this point, for it is not in my character
to pass through life uncertain--mistaken, perhaps--on psychological
matters such as these. No, Madame; rest happily assured that there is
a great difference, which in the future will be sacred for me. For,
believe me, Madame, it would be calamity for high Society if by chance
there should arise amongst them any understanding of all that side of
life which--vast as the plains and bitter as the sea, black as the ashes
of a corpse, and yet more free than any wings of birds who fly away--is
so justly beyond the grasp of their philosophy. Yes, believe me, dear
Madame, there is no danger in the world so much to be avoided by all the
members of that circle, most illustrious, most respectable, called high
Society.

From what I have said you may imagine how hard it is for me to take my
flight. I shall always keep for you the most distinguished sentiments.
With the expression of my full regard for you and your good family, and
of a gratitude as sincere as it is badly worded,

Believe me, dear Madame,

Your devoted

LOUIS FERRAND.

Shelton's first impulse was to tear the letter up, but this he reflected