Follow my advice, offered for the twentieth time: go on seeing your
friends; you cannot do without them. Really there is no need for you to
mourn for a year with crape on the chandeliers and immortelles around my
portrait.
You have been a kind, faithful, and delicate-minded friend to me, and I
am not so lacking in delicacy myself that I do not appreciate this in my
inmost heart. But I cannot accept your generous offer to give me money.
I now tell you this for the first time, because, had I said so before,
you would have done your best to over-persuade me. My small income is,
and will be, sufficient for my needs.
The train leaves in an hour. Richard, you have your business and your
friends--more friends than anyone I know. If you wish me well, wish that
I may never regret the step I have taken. I look down at my hands that
you loved--I wish I could stretch them out to you....
A man must not let himself be crushed. It would hurt me to feel that
people pitied you. You are much too good to be pitied.
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