Do not repeat your excuse that the less you speak of him, the better it is for me.

That is a convenient excuse you have invented, but it is foolish, because, whether you talk to me of him or not, it is all the same.

My hopes are quite dead; they will not revive.

Then write me long letters, I am sure he wishes to convert you, that you have very serious talks together, and that is why you tell me so little about him.

It would not be a very glorious achievement to convert _you_, for you are sentimental in matters of religion; you do not possess that clear, cold, and positive insight which is, unfortunately, natural to me, and which I wish _I_ did not possess.
When do you intend to return to Belgium?
Do not your affairs there need your attention?
You once mentioned an agent in whom you had little confidence.