way
into little strangers. I seized the three nearest and hugged them hard.
I have suddenly found such new life and exuberance, I feel as though I
had been released from prison and were free. I feel,--oh, I'll stop,--I
just want you to know the truth. Don't show Jervis this letter, but tell
him what's in it in a decently subdued and mournful fashion.

It's midnight now, and I'm going to try to go to sleep. It's wonderful
not to be going to marry some one you don't want to marry. I'm glad of
all these children's needs, I'm glad of Helen Brooks, and, yes, of the
fire, and everything that has made me see clearly. There's never been a
divorce in my family, and they would have hated it.

I know I'm horribly egotistical and selfish; I ought to be thinking
of poor Gordon's broken heart. But really it would just be a pose if I
pretended to be very sorrowful. He'll find some one else with just as
conspicuous hair as mine, who will make just as effective a hostess, and
who won't be bothered by any of these damned modern ideas about public
service and woman's mission and all the rest of the tomfoolery the
modern generation of women is addicted to. (I paraphrase, and soften our
young man's heartbroken utterances.)

Good-by, dear people. How I wish I could stand with you on your beach
and look across the blue, blue sea! I salute the Spanish main.

ADDIO!

SALLIE.

January 27.

Dear Dr. MacRae:

I wonder if this note will be so fortunate as to find you awake? Perhaps
you are not aware that I have called four times to offer thanks and
consolation in my best bed-side manner? I am touched by the news that
Mrs. McGurk's time is entirely occupied in taking in flowers and jelly
and chicken broth, donated by the adoring ladies of the parish to
the ungracious hero in a plaster cast. I know that you find a cap of
homespun more comfortable than a halo, but I really do think that you
might have regarded me in a different light from the hysterical ladies
in question. You and I used to be friends (intermittently), and though
there are one or two details in our past intercourse that might better
be expunged, still I don't see why we should let them upset our entire
relationship. Can't we be sensible and expunge them?

The fire has brought out such a lot of unexpected kindliness and
charity, I wish it might bring out a little from you. You see, Sandy,
I know you well. You may pose to the world as being gruff and curt and
ungracious an