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answer from Will Ladislaw:—
‘DEAR MR. CASAUBON,—I have given all due consid-
eration to your letter of yesterday, but I am unable to take
precisely your view of our mutual position. With the full-
est acknowledgment of your generous conduct to me in the
past, I must still maintain that an obligation of this kind
cannot fairly fetter me as you appear to expect that it should.
Granted that a benefactor’s wishes may constitute a claim;
there must always be a reservation as to the quality of those
wishes. They may possibly clash with more imperative con-
siderations. Or a benefactor’s veto might impose such a
negation on a man’s life that the consequent blank might be
more cruel than the benefaction was generous. I am merely
using strong illustrations. In the present case I am unable
to take your view of the bearing which my acceptance of
occupation—not enriching certainly, but not dishonor-
able— will have on your own position which seems to me
too substantial to be affected in that shadowy manner. And
though I do not believe that any change in our relations will
occur (certainly none has yet occurred) which can nullify
the obligations imposed on me by the past, pardon me for
not seeing that those obligations should restrain me from
using the ordinary freedom of living where I choose, and
maintaining myself by any lawful occupation I may choose.
Regretting that there exists this difference between us as
to a relation in which the conferring of benefits has been
entirely on your side—
I remain, yours with persistent obligation,
WILL LADISLAW.’