"I am beginning to think that you are changed more than I," she said, impetuously.
"You know, or might, if you took the trouble, that I did not tell Mary, my own sister, of my progress toward health and strength.

My wish to give you all a pleasant surprise may seem a little thing to you, or you may give some sinister, unnatural meaning to the act.

It was not a little thing to go away 'a ghost, a wraith,' as you were wont to call me--it was not a little thing to go away alone, perhaps to die, as I then felt.

Nor was it a little thing to battle for weary months with weakness of mind and body, morbid timidity, indolence, ignorance, and everything that was contrary to my ideal of womanhood.
I can say thus much in self-defence.

Was there harm in my adding some incentive to a hard sense of duty?
I felt that if I could change for the better and keep my secret I could give you all a glad surprise.