It was the letter of a man who knew how to appreciate at their proper value the misfortunes, as the fortunes, of life.

While Frank Armour read he came to feel for the first time that his brother Richard had suffered, maybe, from some such misery as had come to him through Julia Sherwood.

It was a dispassionate, manly letter, relieved by gentle wit, and hinting with careful kindness that a sudden blow was better for a man than a lifelong thorn in his side.

Of Julia Sherwood he had nothing particularly bitter to say.

He delicately suggested that she had acted according to her nature, and that in the see-saw of life Frank had had a sore blow; but this was to be borne.