UNADDRESSED LETTERS

By the same Author

Malay Sketches

Second Edition

Cr. 8vo, 6s.

UNADDRESSED

LETTERS

EDITED BY

FRANK ATHELSTANE

SWETTENHAM, K.C.M.G.

JOHN LANE

THE BODLEY HEAD

LONDON AND NEW YORK

MDCCCXCVIII

All rights reserved

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.

At the Ballantyne Press

PREFACE

“I HAD a friend who loved me;” but he has gone, and the “great gulf” is between us.

After his death I received a packet of manuscript with these few words:—

“What I have written may appeal to you because of our friendship, and because, when you come to read them, you will seek to grasp, in these apparent confidences, an inner meaning that to the end will elude you. If you think others, not the many but the few, might find here any answer to their unuttered questionings, any fellowship of sympathy in those experiences which are the milestones of our lives, then use the letters as you will, but without my name. I shall have gone, and the knowledge of my name would make no one either wiser or happier.”

In the packet I found these letters. I cannot tell whether there is any special order in which they should be read—there was nothing to guide me on that point. I do not know whether they are to real or imaginary people, whether they were ever sent or only written as an amusement, a relief to feeling, or with a purpose—the one to which they are now put, for instance. One thing is certain, namely, that, however taken, they are not all indited to the same person; of that there seems to be convincing internal evidence.

The writer was, by trade, a diplomatist; by inclination, a sportsman with literary and artistic tastes; by force of circumstances he was a student of many characters, and in some sense a cynic. He was also a traveller—not a great traveller, but he knew a good deal of Europe, a little of America, much of India and the further East. He spent some time in this neighbourhood, and was much interested in the country and its people. There is an Eastern atmosphere about many of the letters, and he made no secret of the fact that he was fascinated by the glamour of the lands of sunshine. He died very suddenly by misadventure, and, even to me, his packet of letters came rather as a revelation.

Before determining to publish the letters, I showed them to a friend on whose opinion I knew the writer had set store. He said, “The critic will declare there is too much scenery, too much sentiment. Very likely he will be right for those whose lives are passed in the streets of London, and the letters will not interest so many readers as would stories of blood and murder. Yet leave them. Love is in the atmosphere day and night, and the scenery is in true proportion to our lives here, where, after all, sunsets are commoner than murders.” Therefore I have left them as they came to me, only using my discretion to omit some of the letters altogether.

F. A. S.

February 12, 1898.

“Thus fare you well right hertely beloved

frende ... and love me as you have ever

done, for I love you better than ever I dyd.”

CONTENTS

PAGE
I.[THE HILL OF SOLITUDE]1
II.[OF WORSHIP]6
III.[WEST AND EAST]13
IV.[A CLEVER MONGOOSE]21
V.[A BLUE DAY]33
VI.[OF LOVE, IN FICTION]42
VII.[THE JINGLING COIN]48
VIII.[A STRANGE SUNSET]61
IX.[OF LETTER-WRITING]68
X.[AT A FUNERAL]72
XI.[OF CHANGE AND DECAY]82
XII.[DAUGHTERS AND DESPOTISM]96
XIII.[HER FIANCÉ]107
XIV.[BY THE SEA]115
XV.[AN ILLUMINATION]123
XVI.[OF DEATH, IN FICTION]129
XVII.[A HAND AT ÉCARTÉ]138
XVIII.[THE GENTLE ART OF VEERING WITH THE WIND]145
XIX.[A REJOINDER]153
XX.[OF IMPORTUNITY]159
XXI.[OF COINCIDENCES]168
XXII.[OF A COUNTRY-HOUSE CUSTOM]175
XXIII.[A MERE LIE]182
XXIV.[TIGERS AND CROCODILES]191
XXV.[A ROSE AND A MOTH]203
XXVI.[A LOVE-PHILTRE]209
XXVII.[MOONSTRUCK]220
XXVIII.[THE “DEVI”]229
XXIX.[THE DEATH-CHAIN]242
XXX.[SCANDAL AND BANGLES]252
XXXI.[THE REPREHENSIBLE HABIT OF MAKING COMPARISONS]259
XXXII.[A CHALLENGE]265
XXXIII.[IN EXILE]270
XXXIV.[OF LOVE—NOT IN FICTION]284
XXXV.[OF OBSESSION]295
XXXVI.[OF PARADISE LOST]303
XXXVII.[“TO MARY, IN HEAVEN”]307