“Laugh at the review, and don’t notice it to any of your friends. You have a good spirit of your own, and you don’t need to be crushed, and neither will you be. You will be the first to laugh this day six months for having been temporarily disquieted.
“As to Law! Oh, lor! Wouldn’t your enemies, if you have any, rejoice to see you at loggerheads with the Press? No, no, that wouldn’t do.
“You can firmly rely on your gifts to render nugatory all attacks upon you of the nature of the present. Let me hear that Thelma’s herself again.
“Yours sincerely,
“George Bentley.”
“May 4th, 1892.
“The attacks do not daunt me, and it seems to me that three out of the four are by one hand.”
“Upton, Slough,
“May 17th, 1892.
“Dear Thelma,—
“I am right glad at the news in your letter. I am sure you will now see that the late attacks on ‘Lilith’ will derive their importance only when you notice them. Even from those who do not like highly imaginative literature, I have heard the remark that the reviews in question were entirely one-sided, and left one to suppose that the English public was cracked in running after a writer without a solitary merit.
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