hree of serious import. One was from Lady Calmady, and that he
put aside with a certain anger, calling himself unwilling, knowing
himself unfit, to read it. Another he tore open. The handwriting was
unknown to him. He began reading it in bewilderment. Then he
understood.

"MONSIEUR,"--it ran,--"You are in process of exterminating me. But,
since I have reason to believe that no sufficient opportunity has been
afforded you of realising the enormity of your conduct, I rally the
profoundness of nobility which I discover within me--I calm myself. I
go further, I explain. Living in retirement, you may not have learned
that I am in Naples. I followed your cousin here--Madame de Vallorbes.
My connection with her represents the supreme passion of my passionate
youth. At once a frenzy and an anodyne, I have found in it the
inspiration of my genius in its later development. This work must not
be put a stop to. It is too majestic, it is weighted with too serious
consequences to the whole of thinking France, of thinking Europe. A
less experienced woman cannot satisfy the extravagance of my desires,
the demands of my all-consuming imagination. The reverence with which a
person, such as yourself, must regard commanding talent, the
concessions he must be willing to make to its necessities, are without
limit. This I cannot doubt that you will admit. The corollary is
obvious. Either, _monsieur_, you will immediately invite me to reside
with you at your villa--thereby securing for yourself daily intercourse
with a nature of distinguished merit--or you will restore Madame de
Vallorbes to me without hesitation or delay. Her devotion to me is
absolute. How could it fail to be so, since I have lavished upon her
the treasures of my extraordinary personality? But a fear of insular
prejudice on your part withholds her at this moment from full
expression of that devotion. She suffers as well as myself. It will be
your privilege to put a term to this suffering by requesting me to join
her, or by restoring her to me. To do otherwise will be to prolong the
eclipse of my genius, and thereby outrage the conscience of civilised
humanity which breathlessly awaits the next utterance of its chosen
poet. If you require the consolation of feminine society, marry--it
would be very simple--some white-souled, English miss. But restore to
me, to whom her presence is indispensable, this woman of regal
passions. I shall present myself at your house to-day to re