"Then I shall be sorry for her. Because you won't."
"Why not?"
"Oh!" But the months and years revolved and at last his dream came true; also it befell that, just at the same moment, the G.F. reappeared; to whom he broke out ecstatically: "I told you so! She has found out! She has asked me."
The G.F. was imperturbable. "What's the use? You can't."
"You'll see if I can't!" And he sat down and tried. Oh, he tried long—he tried hard. But the G.F. was right. It was too late. He couldn't.
HENRY JAMES.
Lamb House, Rye. Oct. 13, 1899.
To Sidney Colvin.
The following refers to R. L. Stevenson's Letters to his Family and Friends, edited by Sir Sidney Colvin. H. J.'s article appeared in the North American Review, January 1900, and was afterwards reprinted in Notes on Novelists.