t an end, and that
Mrs. Wakeman and the children are with you. If she has arrived, please
convey to her my acknowledgments for the card she left for me, and say
how much I regretted not seeing her. Please also to remind her that
next Monday (first Monday in October) is the meeting of Sorosis, and
that I shall expect to find her at Delmonico's, corner of 14th Street
and Fifth Avenue, at 1 P.M., as my guest. She can walk straight
upstairs, and a waiter will send in her name to me, so that she need
not enter alone; or she can arrive a little earlier (I am always there
early) and see the ladies as they come.

As I have not many occasions for writing notes to you, Mr. Wakeman, I
desire to say to you, with the deliberation with which one puts pen to
paper, that I am thankful for having known so true a man, and happy
that my husband can count him friend. One thing done is worth many
words spoken, yet I am doubly glad when words and acts walk
harmoniously together.

Always your obliged friend,
J.C. CROLY.

From Mrs. Croly to Mrs. Wakeman

7 BENTRICT TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, N.W.,
LONDON, December 24, 1900.

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND:

I am sure that you have thought many times that I was forgetful and
ungrateful, but indeed the first part of the indictment cannot be laid
to my charge. I never forget you, and if I have not written, it is
because I have suffered and enjoyed many things during the past two
years, and have permanently lost the power of rapid movement, or of
doing anything under great stress and pressure.

But now that this wonderful year is ending, this Sabbath of the
centuries, I feel that I must at least send my love and unforgetness
to you; also my hope that you are finding on the other side of the
continent of North America, compensation for all that you left behind
in the east, and greater promise for the future.

For all that I have gained for some years past I have to thank my
losses. Chief among my gains is, I hope, a little realization of
eternal goodness; of the perfection of the order which governs the
universe, and the relation of every separate atom to the Divine Unity
of the whole. I know Goethe proclaimed it a hundred years ago; but
every separate part has to grow to its knowledge for itself.

I wonder how you are spending Christmas. This year seems to me so
remarkable that it is a privilege to live in it. I am trying to use
its last days as if they were mine,