We returned only this morning from Appledore, that enchanted island
--at four dollars per day. I find on my desk three letters from
you! Evidently there is no lingering doubt in your mind as to the
pleasure I derive from your correspondence. These letters are
undated, but in what I take to be the latest are two passages that
require my consideration. You will pardon my candor, dear Flemming,
but the conviction forces itself upon me that as your leg grows
stronger your head becomes weaker. You ask my advice on a certain
point. I will give it. In my opinion you could do nothing more
unwise that to address a note to Miss Daw, thanking her for the
flower. It would, I am sure, offend her delicacy beyond pardon. She
knows you only through me; you are to her an abstraction, a figure
in a dream--a dream from which the faintest shock would awaken her.
Of course, if you enclose a note to me and insist on its delivery,
I shall deliver it; but I advise you not to do so.
You say you are able, with the aid of a cane, to walk about your
chamber, and that you purpose to come to The Pines the instant
Dillon thinks you strong enough to stand the journey. Again I
advise you not to. Do you not see that, every hour you remain away,
Marjorie's glamour deepens, and your influence over her increases?
You will ruin everything by precipitancy. Wait until you are
entirely recovered; in any case, do not come without giving me
warning.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42