Your refusal to allow my father's estate to restore to you, so far
as it can, the money which it took from you, and thus to right, in
part, a grave wrong, is to me a great surprise and disappointment.
I had not thought it possible that you, upon due reflection, could
take a position the one obvious effect of which is to keep a son
permanently under the shadow of his father's dishonor.
Do not, of course, misunderstand me. I have known you too well to
believe for a moment that you can be swayed by ungenerous motives.
I am very sure that you are taking now the part which you believe
most generous. But that view is, I assure you, so far from the real
facts that I can only conclude that you have refused to learn what
these facts are. Both legally and morally the money is yours. No
one else on earth has a shadow of claim to it. I most earnestly beg
that, in fairness to me, you will at least give my attorneys the
chance to convince yours that what I write here is true and
unanswerable.
Should you adhere to your present position, the money will, of
course, be trusteed for your benefit, nor will a penny of it be
touched until it is accepted, if not by you, then by your heirs or
assigns. But I cannot believe that you will continue to find
magnanimity in shirking your just responsibilities, and denying to
me my right to wipe out this stain.
Very truly yours,
HENRY G. SURFACE, Jr.
No answer ever came to this letter, and there the matter rested through
March and into the sultry April.