How right you are about 'Ben Capstan,'--and the illustration by the
_yellow clay_. That is precisely what I meant,--said with more
precision than I could say it. Art without an ideal is neither nature
nor art. The question involves the whole difference between Madame
Tussaud and Phidias.
I have just received Mr. Edgar Poe's book--and I see that the
deteriorating preface which was to have saved me from the vanity-fever
produceable by the dedication, is cut down and away--perhaps in this
particular copy only!
Tuesday is so near, as men count, that I caught myself just now being
afraid lest the week should have no chance of appearing long to you!
Try to let it be long to you--will you? My consistency is wonderful.
_R.B. to E.B.B._
Friday Morning.
As if I could deny you anything! Here is the Review--indeed it was
foolish to mind your seeing it at all. But now, may I stipulate?--You
shall not send it back--but on your table I shall find and take it
next Tuesday--_c'est convenu_! The other precious volume has not yet
come to hand (nor to foot) all through your being so sure that to
carry it home would have been the death of me last evening!
I cannot write my feelings in this large writing, begun on such a
scale for the Review's sake; and just now--there is no denying it, and
spite of all I have been incredulous about--it does seem that the fact
_is_ achieved and that I _do_ love you, plainly, surely, more than
ever, more than any day in my life before. It is your secret, the why,
the how; the experience is mine. What are you doing to me?--in the
heart's heart.