You must all look on me as one dead; as I am to you, and maybe shall soon be in reality.
'Your affectionate and obedient friend to command, 'PHILIP HEPBURN.
'P.S .-- Oh, Hester! for God's sake and mine, look after ('my wife,' scratched out) Sylvia and my child.

I think Jeremiah Foster will help you to be a friend to them.

This is the last solemn request of P.H.She is but very young.' Hester read this letter again and again, till her heart caught the echo of its hopelessness, and sank within her.

She put it in her pocket, and reflected upon it all the day long as she served in the shop.
The customers found her as gentle, but far more inattentive than usual.

She thought that in the evening she would go across the bridge, and consult with the two good old brothers Foster.