Two men had to cross a dangerous bridge. The first convinced himself that it wd. bear them, and called this conviction Faith. The second said ‘Whether it breaks or holds, whether I die here or somewhere else, I am equally in God’s good hands.’ And the bridge did break and they were both killed: and the second man’s Faith was not disappointed and the first man’s was.

From a letter to Mrs. D. Jessup, March 1954, in Collected Letters vol. III.

This was Lewis’s final word in response to Mrs. Jessup telling him (apparently amicably, but the reason isn’t stated) that she needed to break off their correspondence of several years.