But she had no means of knowing whether it had ever been received.

Upon her the effect of his absence had been, for a time, of the most serious character.

For a few weeks after he went away, both body and mind were prostrated; to this succeeded a state of mental depression, which continued so long that her friends began to fear for her reason.

Not until after the lapse of a year, when she received the above-mentioned letter from her son, did her mind attain to anything like its former state.

The knowledge that he was yet, alive, that he thought of her, and still cherished her memory, gave a new impulse to her fainting spirit, and a quicker motion to the circle of life.