“Dear friend Marion:
To-day’s mail brings me saddest and most unexpected news. I
believed my Aunt Hilda would live years; I would not have left
her had I thought she would be taken so soon. She died in
Summer Avenue before she could be taken to Bensalem. Judith
has written herself, the bravest child’s letter. She is in
Bensalem with two old aunts of her mother.
Roger hopes to have you for his housekeeper; you will be near
Judith; will you take her under your wing? Her mother
especially wished her not to go to boarding-school. She has
always been a child of promise; she may fizzle out as
promising children do and become only an ordinary girl; but
she will always be sweet and brave, which is better than being
brilliant. One sweet woman is worth a thousand brilliant ones;
that is the reason there are so many more sweet ones. I would
change my plans and return for her sake, but what can a
bachelor cousin do for her? She will be sheltered from harmful
influences in Bensalem. She will write me regularly. I have
written to Roger about her money affairs.
Your friend,
Don.”