_P.S._—Perhaps it is a pang of causeless honesty, perhaps I
hope it will set a value on my praise of _Roderick_, perhaps
it's a burst of the diabolic, but I must break out with the
news that I can't bear the _Portrait of a Lady_. I read it
all, and I wept too; but I can't stand your having written it;
and I beg you will write no more of the like. _Infra_, sir;
Below you: I can't help it—it may be your favourite work, but
in my eyes it's BELOW YOU to write and me to read. I thought
_Roderick_ was going to be another such at the beginning;
and I cannot describe my pleasure as I found it taking bones
and blood, and looking out at me with a moved and human
countenance, whose lineaments are written in my memory until
my last of days.