9. P. M.--Your letter has just come. It seems years since I last heard
from you. I know how you feel but I can’t help being glad that he has
gone. Nothing will happen to him. Don’t be foolish. He is your manifest
destiny and you will be married to him this time next year. If Freddy
really has hurt himself and is suffering I can’t help feeling sorry
for the wicked little beast--I have grown so soft about such things
in the last two years. But the circumstances were disgraceful and you
were wise to treat his summons to his bedside as a trick to compromise
you and hamper the proceedings. What an enigma even a miserable little
degenerate can be. Who can say whether he really is fascinated by you
still--he is incapable of love--and honestly desires a reconciliation,
or whether he wants to prevent your marriage with V. R.--or, who
knows?--perhaps he is afraid that woman will want to marry him. Well,
I do wish that the evidence could have been gathered more quickly and
that it were over.