Cashel Byron's Profession

"I shall make no further attempt to advise you. As fast as my

counsels rise to my mind follow reflections that convince me of

their futility.

"You may perhaps wonder why I never said to you what I have written

down here. I have tried to do so and failed. If I understand myself

aright, I have written these lines mainly to relieve a craving to

express my affection for you. The awkwardness which an

over-civilized man experiences in admitting that he is something

more than an educated stone prevented me from confusing you by

demonstrations of a kind I had never accustomed you to. Besides, I

wish this assurance of my love--my last word--to reach you when no

further commonplaces to blur the impressiveness of its simple truth

are possible.

"I know I have said too much; and I feel that I have not said

enough. But the writing of this letter has been a difficult task.

Practised as I am with my pen, I have never, even in my earliest

efforts, composed with such labor and sense of inadequacy----"

Here the manuscript broke off. The letter had never been finished.