The contest has nearly extinguished my life.

This is the last struggle I shall have with you.

My first weak thought was to return your letter without a word in reply.

But that would have been a wrong to both; and so I have made you this communication, and you must regard it as final.

Farewell, unhappy Leon Dexter! I would have saved you from this calamity, but you would not let me! May He who has permitted you thus to drag down the temple of domestic happiness, and bury yourself amid the ruins, give you, in this direful calamity, a higher than human power of endurance.