Office of "All the Year Round," No. 26, Wellington Street,
Strand, London, W.C.,
Tuesday, Aug. 3rd, 1869.
My dearest Mamie,
I send you the second chapter of the remarkable story. The printer is late with it, and I have not had time to read it, and as I altered it considerably here and there, I have no doubt there are some verbal mistakes in it. However, they will probably express themselves.
But I offer a prize of six pairs of gloves—between you, and your aunt, and Ellen Stone, as competitors—to whomsoever will tell me what idea in this second part is mine. I don't mean an idea in language, in the turning of a sentence, in any little description of an action, or a gesture, or what not in a small way, but an idea, distinctly affecting the whole story as I found it. You are all to assume that I found it in the main as you read it, with one exception. If I had written it, I should have made the woman love the man at last. And I should have shadowed that possibility out, by the child's bringing them a little more together on that holiday Sunday.
But I didn't write it. So, finding that it wanted something, I put that something in. What was it?
Love to Ellen Stone.
Mr. Arthur Ryland.
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent,
Friday, Aug. 13th, 1869.
My dear Mr. Ryland,
Many thanks for your letter.