Let me congratulate you on the conclusion of your story; not because it
is the end of a task to which you had conceived a dislike (for I imagine
you to have got the better of that delusion by this time), but because
it is the vigorous and powerful accomplishment of an anxious labour. It
seems to me that you have felt the ground thoroughly firm under your
feet, and have strided on with a force and purpose that MUST now give
you pleasure.
You will not, I hope, allow that not-lucid interval of dissatisfaction
with yourself (and me?), which beset you for a minute or two once upon a
time, to linger in the shape of any disagreeable association with
"Household Words." I shall still look forward to the large sides of
paper, and shall soon feel disappointed if they don't begin to reappear.
I thought it best that Wills should write the business letter on the
conclusion of the story, as that part of our communications had always
previously rested with him. I trust you found it satisfactory? I refer
to it, not as a matter of mere form, but because I sincerely wish
everything between us to be beyond the possibility of misunderstanding
or reservation.
Dear Mrs. Gaskell, very faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.]