My Dear Mr. Beauvoir--I was very sorry to receive your letter of yesterday--_very_ sorry--because there can be only one answer that I can make--and you might well have spared me the pain of saying the word--No. You ask me if I love you. If I did--do you think it would be true love in me to tell you so, when I know what it would cost you? Oh indeed you must never marry _me_! In your own country you would never have heard of me--never seen me--surely never written me such a letter to tell me that you love me and want to marry me. It is not that I am ashamed of my business or of the folks around me, or ashamed that I am only the charity child of two poor players, who lived and died working for the bread for their mouths and mine. I am proud of them--yes, proud of what they did and suffered for one poorer than themselves--a little foundling out of an Indian camp. But I know the difference between you and me. You are a great man at home--you have never told me how great--but I know your father is a rich lord, and I suppose you are. It is not that I think _you_ care for that, or think less of me because I was born different from you. I know how good--how kind--how _respectful_ you have always been to me--_my lord_--and I shall never forget it--for a girl in my position knows well enough how you might have been otherwise. Oh believe me--_my true friend_--I am never going to forget all you have done for me--and how good it has been to have you near me--a man so different from most others. I don't mean only the kind things you have done--the books and the thoughts and the ways you have taught me to enjoy--and all the trouble you have taken to make me something better than the stupid little girl I was when you found me--but a great deal more than that--the consideration you have had for me and for what I hold best in the world. I had never met a _gentleman_ before--and now the first one I meet--he is my _friend_. That is a great deal. Only think of it! You have been following me around now for three months, and I have been weak enough to allow it. I am going to do the right thing now. You may think it hard in me _if you really mean what you say,_ but even if everything else were right, I would not marry you--because of your rank. I do not know how things are at your home--but something tells me it would be wrong and that your family would have a right to hate you and never forgive you. Professionals cannot go in your society. And that is even if I loved you--and I do not love you--I do not love you--_I do not love you_--now I have written it you will believe it.