Anyhow that shows the spirit in which the book was written, and there
must have been something in it that rang true, because not only did it
have an enormous sale and therefore a multitude of readers, but I
received hundreds of letters from people who in one way or another were
deeply interested in the story.

The majority of them were inquisitive letters. A great many of them said
that the writer had shared in controversy as to what the relations of
Charley and Rosalie were, and asked me to set for ever queries and
controversies at rest by declaring either that the relations of these two
were what, in the way of life's stern conventions, they ought not to be,
or that Rosalie passed unscathed through the fire. I had foreseen all
this, though I could not have foreseen the passionately intense interest
which my readers would take in the life-story of these unhappy yet happy
people. I had, however, only one reply. It was that all I had meant to
say concerning Charley and Rosalie had been said in the book, to the last
word. All I had meant not to say would not be said after the book was
written. I asked them to take exactly the same view of Charley and
Rosalie as they would in real life regarding two human beings with whom
they were acquainted, and concerning whom, to their minds, there was
sufficient evidence, or not sufficient evidence, to come to a conclusion
as to what their relations were. I added that, as in real life we used
our judgment upon such things with a reasonable amount of accuracy,
I asked them to apply that judgment to Charley Steele and Rosalie
Evanturel. They and their story were there for eyes to see and read,
and when I had ended my manuscript in the year 1900 I had said the last
word I ever meant to say as to their history. The controversy therefore
continues, for the book still makes its appeal to an ever increasing
congregation of new readers.