Certainly I acquit you of all blame in the Bedford case. But one cannot do otherwise than sympathise with a son who is reasonably tender of his father's memory. And no amount of private correspondence, we must remember, reaches the readers of a printed and published statement. I told you some time ago that I believed the arsenic in Eliza Fenning's case to have been administered by the apprentice. I never was more convinced of anything in my life than of the girl's innocence, and I want words in which to express my indignation at the muddle-headed story of that parsonic blunderer whose audacity and conceit distorted some words that fell from her in the last days of her baiting. Ever faithfully yours. [Sidenote: Lord Lytton.] GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, _Monday, 14th October, 1867._ MY DEAR LYTTON, I am truly delighted to find that you are so well pleased with Fechter in "The Lady of Lyons." It was a labour of love with him, and I hold him in very high regard. _Don't_ give way to laziness, and _do_ proceed with that play. There never was a time when a good new play was more wanted, or had a better opening for itself. Fechter is a thorough artist, and what he may sometimes want in personal force is compensated by the admirable whole he can make of a play, and his perfect understanding of its presentation as a picture to the eye and mind. I leave London on the 8th of November early, and sail from Liverpool on the 9th. Ever affectionately yours. [Sidenote: The same.] "ALL THE YEAR ROUND" OFFICE, _Friday, 25th October, 1867._ MY DEAR LYTTON, I have read the Play[88] with great attention, interest, and admiration; and I need not say to _you_ that the art of it--the fine construction--the exquisite nicety of the touches--with which it is wrought out--have been a study to me in the pursuit of which I have had extraordinary relish. Taking the Play as it stands, I have nothing whatever to add to your notes and memoranda of the points to be touched again, except that I have a little uneasiness in that burst of anger and inflexibility consequent on having been deceived, coming out of Hegio. I see the kind of actor who _must_ play Hegio, and I see that the audience will not believe in his doing anything so serious. (I suppose it would be impossible to get this effect out of the mother--or through the mother's influence, instead of out of the godfather of Hegiopolis?)