From Leslie Stephen   14 January 1881

My dear M^r Darwin,

I believe that barristers consider it very wicked to refuse a fee; and in that respect I think that they show a good deal of sense. So, as I have been more or less acting as your Counsel, I will certainly not refuse the fee which you are so good as to offer, though it is more than an equivalent for anything that I have done—

If you will send me either the “origin of species” or the voyage of the Beagle (which was the first book of yours I ever read & which I therefore specially affect) I shall be sincerely grateful.¹

You are most kind to think of such a thing.

I go to the Alps for a fortnight on tuesday next, to gratify a love of snow & which proves, I suppose, my descent from some prehistoric inhabitant of caves; but I hope to be back on Feb^y. 10^th

Believe me to be | Yours very sincerely | L. Stephen