ned that he would
see that lady for the last time. Then he had taken her to Lowestoft,
and had been equally firm in his resolution that he would there put an
end to his present bonds. Now he had promised to go again to
Islington;--and was aware that if he failed to keep his promise, she
would come to him. In this way there would never be an end to it.

He would certainly go again, as he had promised,--if she should still
require it; but he would first try what a letter would do,--a plain
unvarnished tale. Might it still be possible that a plain tale sent by
post should have sufficient efficacy? This was his plain tale as he
now told it.

Tuesday, 2nd July, 1873.

MY DEAR MRS HURTLE,--

I promised that I would go to you again in Islington, and so I
will, if you still require it. But I think that such a meeting
can be of no service to either of us. What is to be gained? I do
not for a moment mean to justify my own conduct. It is not to be
justified. When I met you on our journey hither from San
Francisco, I was charmed with your genius, your beauty, and your
character. They are now what I found them to be then. But
circumstances have made our lives and temperaments so far
different, that I am certain that, were we married, we should
not make each other happy. Of course the fault was mine; but it
is better to own that fault, and to take all the blame,--and
the evil consequences, let them be what they may [to be shot,
for instance, like the gentleman in Oregon] than to be married
with the consciousness that even at the very moment of the
ceremony, such marriage will be a matter of sorrow and
repentance. As soon as my mind was made up on this I wrote to
you. I can not,--I dare not,--blame you for the step you have
since taken. But I can only adhere to the resolution I then
expressed.

The first day I saw you here in London you asked me whether I
was attached to another woman. I could answer you only by the
truth. But I should not of my own accord have spoken to you of
altered affections. It was after I had resolved to break my
engagement with you that I first knew this girl. It was not
because I had come to love her that I broke it. I have no
grounds whatever for hoping that my love will lead to any
results.

I have now told you as exactly as I can the condition of my
mind. If it were possible for me in any way to compens