Weigh what I am saying well.  Lillie is, and will always remain the same.  She loves you, and such a line of conduct on your part would fill her with grateful joy.  What does it matter if during the few days or weeks that she is with this poor condemned man, who can neither recognize her, nor speak, nor make the least movement, you have to put up with some inconvenience?

If Lillie had your consent to be near Schlegel, she would certainly not refuse to return to her wifely duties as soon as he was dead.  It is possible that at first she might not be able to hide her grief from you; then it would be your task to help her win back her peace of mind.

I know something of Schlegel; during the last few years I have seen a good deal of him.  Without being a remarkable personality, there was something about him that attracted women.  They attributed to him all the qualities which belonged to the heroes of their dreams.  Do you understand me?  I can believe that a woman who admired strength and manliness might see in Schlegel a type of firm, inflexible manhood; while a woman attracted by tenderness might equally think him capable of the most yielding gentleness.  The secret probably lay in the fact that this man, who knew so many women, possessed the rare faculty of taking each one according to her temperament.

Schlegel was a living man; but had he been a portrait, or character in a novel, Lillie would have fallen in love with him just the same, because her love was purely of the imagination.

You must do what you please.  But one thing I want you to understand:  if you are not going to act in the matter, I shall do so.  I willingly confess that I am a selfish woman; but I am very fond of Lillie, and if you abandon her in this cruel and clumsy way, I shall have her to live with me here, and I shall do my best to console her for the loss of an ungrateful husband and a pack of stupid, indifferent children.

One word more before I finish my letter.  Lillie, as far as I can recollect, is a year older than I am.  Could you not—­woman’s specialist as you are—­have found some explanation in this fact?  Had Lillie been fifty-five or thirty-five, all this would never have happened.  I do not care for strangers to look into my personal affairs, and although you are my cousin’s husband you are practically a stranger to me.  Nevertheless I may remind you that women at our time of life pass through critical moments, as I know by my daily experiences.  The letter which I have written to you in a cool reasoning spirit might have been impossible a week or two ago.  I should probably have reeled off pages of incoherent abuse.

Show Lillie that your pretended love was not selfishness pure and simple.

With kind greetings,
Yours sincerely,
ELSIE LINDTNER.

P.S.—­I would rather not answer your personal attacks.  I could not have acted differently and I regret nothing.