Fiction > Book editions > London, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

38 THE MASTEE OF BATLANTRAE.
said he; ''and Colonel Burke is too considerate not to
excuse you/' And with tliat he took her hand by the
fingers, and led her from the hall.
Mrs. Henry returned no more that night ; and when
Mr. Henry went to visit her next morning, as I heard
long afterwards, she gave him the letter again, still
unopened.
" Oh, read it and be done ! " he had cried.
" Spare me that," said she.
And by these two speeches, to my way of thinking,
each undid a great part of what they had previously
done well. But the letter, sure enough, came into my
hands, and by me was burned, unopened.
To be very exact as to the adventures of the Master
atter Culloden, I wrote not long ago to Colonel Burke,
now a Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis, begging him
for some notes in writing, since I could scarce depend
upon my memory at so great an interval. To confess
the truth, I have been somewhat embarrassed by his re-
sponse ; for he sent me the complete memoirs of his life,
touching only in places on the Master ; running to a
much greater length than my whole story, and not
everywhere (as it seems to me) designed for edihcation.
He begged in his letter, dated from Ettenheim, that I
would find a publisher for the w^hole, after I had made
what use of it I required ; and I think I shall best
answer my own purpose and fulfil his wishes by printing