is all that I could wish, in body and
mind, in beauty and sense and goodness of heart and intelligence, in
health and strength, and especially in the love with which she has
so easily, and I trust so lastingly, filled your heart--for that is
the most precious thing of all to me, as you shall know some day,
and why; and you will then understand and forgive me for seeming
such a shameless egotist and caring so desperately for my own ends.

"Barty, I will never doubt you again, and we will do great things
together. They will not be quite what I used to hope, but they will
be worth doing, and all the doing will be yours. All I can do is to
set your brains in motion--those innocent brains that don't know
their own strength any more than a herd of bullocks which any little
butcher boy can drive to the slaughter-house.

"As soon as Leah is well enough you must tell her all about me--all
you know, that is. She won't believe you at first, and she'll think
you've gone mad; but she'll have to believe you in time, and she's
to be trusted with any secret, and so will you be when once you've
shared it with her.

"(By-the-way, I wish you weren't so slipshod and colloquial in your
English, Barty--Guardsman's English, I suppose--which I have to use,
as it's yours; your French is much more educated and correct. You
remember dear M. Durosier at the Pension Brossard? he taught you
well. You must read, and cultivate a decent English style, for the
bulk of our joint work must be in English, I think; and I can only
use your own words to make you immortal, and your own way of using
them.)

"We will be simple, Barty--as simple as Lemuel Gulliver and the good
Robinson Crusoe--and cultivate a fondness for words of one syllable,
and if that doesn't do we'll try French.

"Now listen, or, rather, read:

"First of all, I will write out for you a list of books, which you
must study whenever you feel I'm inside you--and this more for me
than for yourself. Those marked with a cross you must read
constantly and carefully at home, the others you must read at the
British Museum.

"Get a reading ticket at once, and read the books in the order I put
down. Never forget to leave paper and pencil by your bedside. Leah
will soon get accustomed to your quiet somnambulism; I will never
trouble your rest fo