s paroled, he had hoped
that I would see him to tell him wherein he had forfeited my esteem;
but I had not invited him to call, and mortified and repulsed as he had
been, it was impossible for him to call without my permission.... Did
my little lisper change the message when the little midshipman told her
it had been intercepted because too friendly? I know she met this
martyred Lion frequently after that and had many opportunities of
telling him the simple truth, but she evidently _did not_.

He has gone away with sorely wounded feelings, to say nothing more; for
that I am sincerely sorry; but I trust to his newly acquired freedom,
and his life of danger and excitement, to make him forget the wrongs he
believes himself to have suffered at my hands. If it was all to be gone
through again (which thank Heaven, I will never be called upon to
endure again), I would follow Brother's advice as implicitly then as I
did before. He is right, and without seeing, I believe. They tell me of
his altered looks, and of his forced, reckless gaiety which, so
strangely out of keeping with his natural character, but makes his
assumed part more conspicuous. No matter! He will recover! Nothing like
a sea voyage for disorders of all kinds. And we will never meet again;
that is another consolation.

"Notice: The public are hereby informed through Mrs. ----, Chief
Manager of the Theatre of High Tragedy, that Miss Sarah M., having been
proved unworthy and incompetent to play the role of Ariadne, said part
will hereafter be filled by Miss Blank, of Blank Street, who plays it
with a fidelity so true to nature that she could hardly be surpassed by
the original."

Monday, November 9th.

Another odd link of the old, stale story has come to me, all the way
from New York. A friend of mine, who went on the same boat with the
prisoners, wrote to her mother to tell her that she had formed the
acquaintance of the most charming, fascinating gentleman among them, no
other than my _once_ friend. Of course, she would have been less than a
woman if she had not gossiped when she discovered who he was. So she
sends me word that he told her he had been made to believe, as long as
he was on parole in New Orleans, that we were all Unionists now, and
that Brother would not allow a Confederate to enter the house. (O my
little lisper, was I unjust to you?) He told her that I had been very
kind to him when he was in p