“I think it is great nonsense for two men who are friends at heart, and who ever must be so—indeed it is not in the nature of things that they can be otherwise—should be professed enemies.
“Mr Grieve
and Mr Laidlaw, who were very severe on
me, and to whom I was obliged to show your letter, have long ago convinced me
that I mistook part of it, and that it was not me you held in such contempt,
but the opinion of the public. The idea that you might mean that (though I
still think the reading will bear either construction) has given me much pain;
for I know I answered yours intemperately, and in a mortal rage. I meant to
have enclosed yours, and begged of you to return mine, but I cannot find it,
and am sure that some one to whom I have been induced to show it, has taken it
away. However, as my troubles on that subject were never like to wear to an
end, I could no longer resist telling you that I am extremely vexed about it. I
desire not a renewal of our former intimacy,
| 394 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“If you allow of this, pray let me know, and if you do not, let me know. Indeed, I am anxious to hear from you, for ‘as the day of trouble is with me, so shall my strength be.’ To be friends from the teeth forwards is common enough; but it strikes me that there is something still more ludicrous in the reverse of the picture, and so to be enemies—and why should I be, from the teeth forwards,
