did not use
their influence to get _Punch_, a periodical in which Dickens had no
interest, to publish the personal statement that had appeared in
_Household Words_; and worse, much worse, he wrote a letter, which
ought never to have been written, detailing the grounds on which he
and his wife had separated. This letter, dated the 28th of May, 1858,
was addressed to his secretary, Arthur Smith, and was to be shown to
any one interested. Arthur Smith showed it to the London correspondent
of _The New York Tribune_, who naturally caused it to be published in
that paper. Then Dickens was horrified. He was a man of far too high
and chivalrous feeling not to know that the letter contained
statements with regard to his wife's failings which ought never to
have been made public. He knew as well as any one, that a literary man
ought not to take the world into his confidence on such a subject.
Ever afterwards he referred to the letter as his "violated letter."
But, in truth, the wrong went deeper than the publication. The letter
should never have been written, certainly never sent to Arthur Smith
for general perusal. Dickens' only excuse is the fact that he was
clearly not himself at the time, and that he never fell into a like
error again. It is, however, sad to notice how entirely his wife seems
to have passed out of his affection. The reference to her in his will
is almost unkind; and when death was on him she seems not to have been
summoned to his bedside.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] Dickens did not accept the whole Carlyle creed. He retained a
sort of belief in the collective wisdom of the people, which Carlyle
certainly did not share.

CHAPTER XII.

Dickens' career as a reader reading for money commenced on the 29th of
April, 1858, while the trouble about his wife was at the thickest;
and, after reading in London on sixteen nights, he made a reading tour
in the provinces, and in Scotland and Ireland. In the following year
he read likewise. But meanwhile, which is more important to us than
his readings, he was writing another book. On the 30th of April, 1859,
in the first number of _All the Year Round_,[26] was begun "The Tale
of Two Cities," a simultaneous publication in monthly parts being also
commenced.

"The Tale of Two Cities" is a tale of the great French Revolution of
1793, and the two cities in question are London and Paris,--London as
it lay comparatively at peace in the days when George III. was king,
and