while I avoid further labor...

[derien]

It was an astonishing letter; my breath was taken on the first close page; at the foot of it the tears were in my eyes. And all that part I must pass over without a word. I have never shown it to man or woman. It is sacred between man and man.

...[cutting the really spoilery stuff]...

"...And we have had a hard time here, though not so hard as I deserved; and the hardest part of all..."

But you must guess the hardest part: for the letter ended as it began, with sudden talk of his inner life, and tentative inquiry after mine.