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A Scholar's Letters to a Young Lady (1920)
A Scholar's Letters to a Young Lady - 1920 Author:Francis James Child Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I need not talk any more. Continue to be gracious to me, prithee : it does me good and hurts you not. Accept my constant affection and homage for the rest of tim... more »e. Ever yours, F. Child. January 25, 1885. He caste his eyen upon Emely a, And therewithal he bleynte, and cryede, a! Just so, dearest M., I know you are in New York from Theodora Sedgwick and I know that Boston was nearly the death of you. It was in vain for me to pretend to myself and to you that I was to see you there. There is a time mentioned in prophecy when another shall lay hands on them and take them whither they will not. That time arrived some year or two since, and has been very present the last two months. But what makes me look upon myself and curse my fate is that I did not at least get that half hour with you which I might have had on the way to Boston two weeks this day. I did not explain to you that I was ridden by an obligation to do something else. I was. But after all, this something did not get done, and all the night and the next day I beat my brows saying, what a balk! what a fool! what a dis- cerner of times! That necessary thing, O shame, is not done yet! If now I had followed nature, put my hat on, and not let you heroically go home alone, I should be richer by several recollections, which could console me for a neglected duty, whereas I have a double burden to bear. So it is with all those who fumble when they should act, and do not seize the butterfly on the wing. M., who would have thought her a deceiver? When I look at this picture I say, that is healthy life itself, sweetness and strength blent in just the blissful mixture. But now I hear that a doctor has been called in, and that you are living on milk. I know it will be of no use for me to wring my hands. Why will y...« less