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Mark Rutherford's Deliverance by Mark Rutherford
page 49 of 113 (43%)
anything but kind to you, and I think it will be better, for reasons
which I will afterwards explain, that I should communicate with you
rather than with your husband. For some time past I have suspected
that he was too fond of my wife, and last night I caught him with his
arms round her neck. In a moment of not unjustifiable anger I
knocked him down. I have not the honour of knowing you personally,
but from what I have heard of you I am sure that he has not the
slightest reason for playing with other women. A man who will do
what he has done will be very likely to conceal from you the true
cause of his disaster, and if you know the cause you may perhaps be
able to reclaim him. If he has any sense of honour left in him, and
of what is due to you, he will seek your pardon for his baseness, and
you will have a hold on him afterwards which you would not have if
you were in ignorance of what has happened. For him I do not care a
straw, but for you I feel deeply, and I believe that my frankness
with you, although it may cause you much suffering now, will save you
more hereafter. I have only one condition to make. Mr. Butts must
leave this place, and never let me see his face again. He has ruined
my peace. Nothing will be published through me, for, as far as I can
prevent it, I will have no public exposure. If Mr. Butts were to
remain here it would be dangerous for us to meet, and probably
everything, by some chance, would become common property.--Believe me
to be, Madam, with many assurances of respect, truly yours,--."


I cannot distinguish the precise proportion of cruelty in this
letter. Did the writer designedly torture Butts by telling his wife,
or did he really think that she would in the end be happier because
Butts would not have a secret reserved from her,--a temptation to
lying--and because with this secret in her possession, he might
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