In that quiet world, in that freedom from frivolities and temptations, she will listen to me as she might listen nowhere else.

Keep her, my dearest, kindest father--and, above all things, breathe not a word to her of this letter.

I have surely earned the privilege of being the first to open her eyes to the truth.
She must know nothing, now that I am coming home, till she knows all from my own lips." Here the writing hurriedly broke off.

I am only giving myself credit for common feeling, I trust, when I confess that what I read deeply affected me.

I think I never felt so fond of my boy, and so proud of him, as at the moment when I laid down his letter.
As soon as I could control my spirits, I began to calculate the question of time with a trembling eagerness, which brought back to my mind my own young days of love and hope.