“When Jelnik had finished, and I’d caught my breath, I apologized for having been a dam’ nuisance.  He explained, delicately, soothingly, with exquisite politeness, that literary folks of consequence have to be dam’ nuisances at times.  It’s the price they pay.

“And now let me speak to you, my little Sophy, as your loving and loyal friend:  Hold fast to Jelnik. I knew his father.  The position he occupied wasn’t exactly royal, but the elect addressed him as ‘thou.’  And you have learned somewhat of the Hyndses.  In consequence, your Jelnik is a mixture of South-Carolina-Viennese-Hynds-Jelnik pride, beside which Satan’s is as mild, meek, and innocuous as a properly raised Anglican curate.  Don’t meet his pride with pride.  Meet it with you, Sophy.  Most of us have been loved in our time, but how few of us have been permitted really to love!  That you have in full measure this heavenliest of all powers, is your hope and his.

“There are times I’m almost sorry you didn’t love me, Sophy.  I should then have passed my days in a state of pleasant bewilderment, trying to figure out how the deuce it happened.  Or should I, though?  H’m!  I might have gotten used to being married to you, and that would have spelled boredom.  The thought makes me shudder.

“Johnson and I are coming down for Leetchy’s wedding, of course.  That pink-and-white piece of Irishry will rule Geddes to perfection.  There’s the steel under the velvet, the cat’s claws under that satin paw of hers—­more power to it!  I have two prints and a piece of Cloisonne for her that I am sorely tempted to keep for myself.  I have more than once bought things to give to friends, and then found myself unable to do so.  I shouldn’t be able to give these to anybody but one of the ladies of Hynds House.

“Johnson mopes.  The youngest Meade girl, she with the dimples, the pink cheeks, the fluffy hair, and the fluffier brains, is the cause.  He sighs for everything and everybody.  For Mary Magdalen’s batter cakes.  For the Black family.  For the Kissing Cow, and for Beautiful Dog.  Hynds House is a fatal place!

“So we are coming back to it, as soon as we may.  I kiss your hand,
Madame, and beg you to understand that so long as we two live you
are never going to be able, for any considerable length of time, to
get rid of,
             Your affectionate friend,
                                THE AUTHOR.”

I was able to read between the lines, and my heart warmed to The Author.  At the same time the letter saddened me, in so far as it referred to Mr. Jelnik.

Refuse to let him go?  But I couldn’t keep him.  I knew now that he had to go, that it was the best thing, the only thing.  Doctor Geddes helped me to see that.  The doctor tried, at first, to keep his cousin in Hyndsville.  Why shouldn’t Nicholas go into partnership with him?  Why shouldn’t Nicholas share everything the open-hearted, open-handed doctor had?