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which he wishes to dispense, as he does those which 

 he has dispensed, cannot pledge himself within any 

 definite time to the accomplishment of that which he 

 designs for me. I feel, moreover, well assured that I 

 am standing on a mine, which may at any moment 

 explode, and that to-day is, therefore, not master of the 

 destinies of to-morrow. I thought it prudent, there- 

 fore, to confine to my own breast the hope that was 

 working within it, of possessing that dearest of all 

 portraits, and not even to disclose it to my wife or 

 daughters until I could receive such further news of 

 its actual fulfilment as circumstances admitted. An 

 extreme aversion to spreading news which the next 

 moment might prove unfounded, based on a sad expe- 

 rience that falsehood and distortion are ever in wait 

 for such occasions ; moreover, a fear of imposing, by 

 too early circulation of the report, a sort of constraint 

 (sit venia verbo) on the King ; all these considera- 

 tions seemed to me to make inviolable silence a 

 necessity. But when your Excellency's letter to Baron 

 Wegnern spread the news without my intervention, 

 and when the near accomplishment of my hopes 

 presented itself to me, the obligation of silence on 

 my part ceased ; and from that moment I began to 

 revel, by anticipation, in the enjoyment of possessing 

 the portrait. 



The very next day (28th January) I committed to 

 paper the testamentary directions which should dis- 

 pose of the picture at my death. I consider it as the 

 common property of our country, not only from the 

 idea connected with it, that "it might give pleasure 

 to the poor sufferer" but also for various other rea- 

 sons. I, therefore, did not wish to leave it to my 



