Sincerely yours,
Elsie Lindtner.
[1] Extracts from an earlier letter of Elsie Lindtner’s to Professor Rothe, in “The Dangerous Age,” are given here again, as they throw light on the episode which follows.
Dear Professor Rothe,
Lili has closed her eyes never to open them again. It will scarcely be a great blow to you and yours after what has passed; much more will it be a relief. For her, indeed, it was so.
I feel it my duty to Lili, not to you, to write this letter. You may make what use you please of it. It was I who procured Lili the sleeping draught, for which she had such a burning desire. With my hand in hers I sat beside her till she was cold, and I do not repent that I had the courage to commit what you, as a physician, will call a crime.
A few days before she fell asleep Lili entrusted a packet of letters to my care. I read them in the night, and now lay them in the coffin under her head. These letters were not to be read by the unauthorised, and you have become in relation to Lili one of the unauthorised.
You have called hers a harlot-nature—not in a moment of excitement, but because, after weighty consideration, you arrived at a conclusion to which the word was appropriate. It is not in my power to give you the satisfaction which you deserve, but I wish that the hour may come in which you will see what a desperate wrong you and your abominable children have done Lili.
Harlot-nature, indeed! You can say that of Lili to whom you were married for twenty years—Lili, the purest of beings!