_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.