[For correct and critical edition of this letter, see Mehew 6, 2077.]
To Charles Baxter
[Baxter Letters, 1956, p. 216, at www.hathitrust.org]
[Union House, Manasquan, N.J., 7 May 1888]
My dear Charles,
I return herewith the bill and codicil. And about all this affair on which I have been weaying you with intemperate letters, I wish to say that I put myself in your hands without reserve. A man is no judge in his own quarrel; I cannot change the fact that I have been hit hard, but I can keep that to myself, and I will do what you say, for I am sure it will be just and kind.
My wife, to whom I sent on your letter, was equally affected with myself.
It is strange when you think what a couple of heartless drunken young dogs we were,
that we should be what we are today: that you should write, and I so accept what you have written. Remember it when your bairns grow up: youth is but a scuffle.
Ever yours,
Robert Louis Stevenson