m
of money to leave behind me? I should leave it to your
children, Phineas, and not to Chiltern's.

He bids me neither see you nor write to you,--but how can
I obey a man whom I believe to be mad? And when I will not
obey him in the greater matter by returning to him it
would be absurd were I to attempt to obey him in smaller
details. I don't suppose I shall see you very often. His
letter has, at any rate, made me feel that it would be
impossible for me to return to England, and it is not
likely that you will soon come here again. I will not even
ask you to do so, though your presence gave a brightness
to my life for a few days which nothing else could have
produced. But when the lamp for a while burns with special
brightness there always comes afterwards a corresponding
dullness. I had to pay for your visit, and for the comfort
of my confession to you at Koenigstein. I was determined
that you should know it all; but, having told you, I do
not want to see you again. As for writing, he shall not
deprive me of the consolation,--nor I trust will you.

Do you think that I should answer his letter, or will it
be better that I should show it to Papa? I am very averse
to doing this, as I have explained to you; but I would do
so if I thought that Mr. Kennedy really intended to act
upon his threats. I will not conceal from you that it
would go nigh to kill me if my name were dragged through
the papers. Can anything be done to prevent it? If he were
known to be mad of course the papers would not publish his
statements; but I suppose that if he were to send a letter
from Loughlinter with his name to it they would print it.
It would be very, very cruel.

God bless you. I need not say how faithfully I am

Your friend,

L. K.

This letter was addressed to Phineas at his club, and there he
received it on the evening before the meeting of Parliament. He sat
up for nearly an hour thinking of it after he read it. He must answer
it at once. That was a matter of course. But he could give her no
advice that would be of any service to her. He was, indeed, of all
men the least fitted to give her counsel in her present emergency. It
seemed to him that as she was safe from any attack on her person, she
need only remain at Dresden, answering his letter by what softest
negatives she could use. It was clear to him that in his present
co