When you can avoid _notes_, however, and get their substance into the text, it is highly desirable in the case of so large an audience, simply because, as so large an audience necessarily reads the story in small portions, it is of the greater importance that they should retain as much of its argument as possible. Whereas the difficulty of getting numbers of people to read notes (which they invariably regard as interruptions of the text, not as strengtheners or elucidators of it) is wonderful. Ever affectionately. [Sidenote: The same.] "ALL THE YEAR ROUND" OFFICE, _Eighteenth December_, 1861. MY DEAR BULWER LYTTON, I have not had a moment in which to write to you. Even now I write with the greatest press upon me, meaning to write in detail in a day or two. But I have _read_, at all events, though not written. And I say, Most masterly and most admirable! It is impossible to lay the sheets down without finishing them. I showed them to Georgina and Mary, and they read and read and never stirred until they had read all. There cannot be a doubt of the beauty, power, and artistic excellence of the whole. I counsel you most strongly NOT to append the proposed dialogue between Fenwick and Faber, and NOT to enter upon any explanation beyond the title-page and the motto, unless it be in some very brief preface. Decidedly I would not help the reader, if it were only for the reason that that anticipates his being in need of help, and his feeling objections and difficulties that require solution. Let the book explain itself. It speaks _for_ itself with a noble eloquence. Ever affectionately. FOOTNOTE: [72] "A Strange Story." 1862. [Sidenote: The same.] GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, _Friday, Twenty-fourth January, 1862._ MY DEAR BULWER LYTTON, I have considered your questions, and here follow my replies. 1. I think you undoubtedly _have_ the right to forbid the turning of your play into an opera. 2. I do _not_ think the production of such an opera in the slightest degree likely to injure the play or to render it a less valuable property than it is now. If it could have any effect on so standard and popular a work as "The Lady of Lyons," the effect would, in my judgment, be beneficial. But I believe the play to be high above any such influence. 3. Assuming you do consent to the adaptation, in a desire to oblige Oxenford, I would not recommend your asking any pecuniary compensation. This for two reasons: firstly, because the compensation could only be small at the best; secondly, because your taking it would associate you (unreasonably, but not the less assuredly) with the opera.