I allowed them to appear so because of selfishness....
Alas, Valerie, in spite of all I have protested and professed of love and passion for you, to-day, for the first time, have I really loved you enough to consider you, alone.

And with God's help I will do so always.
"You have offered me two alternatives: to give yourself and your life to me without marriage; or to quietly slip out of my life forever.
"And it never occurred to you--and I say, with shame, that it never occurred to me--that I might quietly efface myself and my demands from _your_ life: leave you free and at peace to rest and develop in that new and quieter world which your beauty and goodness has opened to you.
"Desirable people have met you more than half-way, and they like you.
Your little friend, Helene d'Enver is a genuine and charming woman.
Your friendship for her will mean all that you have so far missed in life all that a girl is entitled to.
"Through her you will widen the circle of your acquaintances and form newer and better friendships You will meet men and women of your own age and your own tastes which is what ought to happen.
"And it is right and just and fair that you enter into the beginning of your future with a mind unvexed and a heart untroubled by conflicts which can never solve for you and me any future life together.
"I do not believe you will ever forget me, or wish to, wholly.

Time heals--otherwise the world had gone mad some centuries ago.
"But whatever destiny is reserved for you, I know you will meet it with the tranquillity and the sweet courage which you have always shown.
"What kind of future I wish for you, I need not write here.

You know.
And it is for the sake of that future--for the sake of the girl whose unselfish life has at last taught me and shamed me, that I give you up forever.
"Dear, perhaps you had better not answer this for a long, long time.
Then, when that clever surgeon, Time, has effaced all scars--and when not only tranquillity is yours but, perhaps, a deeper happiness is in sight, write and tell me so.

And the great god Kelly, nodding before his easel, will rouse up from his Olympian revery and totter away to find a sheaf of blessings to bestow upon the finest, truest, and loveliest girl in all the world.
"_Halcyonii dies! Fortem posce animum! Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.