sent, following your suggestions, for Winfred Jerrolds,
but I cannot say that his evidently unwilling admissions
made the affair any the more palatable--how could they? Some
of the inferences I was forced to draw I cannot bring myself
to discuss, even with your mother. Winfred's French bringing
up and the influence of a weakly affectionate mother have
singularly warped his moral perception. It is impossible for
us not to feel that had you followed Aunt Miriam's advice
and established yourself in Boston, these dreadful results
would have been avoided. I try to believe that with the
altered standards of the city you have chosen your very
fibre has so weakened that you cannot grasp the extent of
the mistake you have made.

Winfred Jerrolds may, as you say, have been your best
friend, in one sense, but I fear that sense is a very narrow
one. He has certainly succeeded beyond anything he could
have hoped in his connection with our family. I always
thought his attentions to Uncle Winthrop unnatural in so
young a boy, but he was always politic. I am informed by
Uncle Searsy's partner that nothing can be done about it;
you will be pleased, probably.

You will realise, I hope, that living as I do with Aunt
Miriam, I cannot with propriety take any course counter to
hers in the matter of your marriage. It may be that she will
be more reconciled with time--I hope so, for it must be a
terrible thought for you that she might die with such
feelings as she now has for her only son!

Your affectionate cousin,

SARAH THAYER BRADLEY.

[FROM MY MOTHER]

STRATFORD, CONN.,

Sept. 7th, 188--

MY DARLING BOY:

This is a hasty note to tell you that I am afraid I cannot
come to you and help dear Roger's bride (how interesting and
beautiful she must be!) for I must stay and nurse poor old
Jeanne, who has had a bad fall putting up the new curtains
and nearly fractured her hip. She is in a great deal of pain
and cannot bear anyone but me about her. I should enjoy
helping Roger's wife with her trousseau--how did he happen
to go to the island she lives on? Is she one of the
Devons