“Is Carl’s letter private?” asked Mrs. Crawford, after a pause.

“I—­I think he would rather I didn’t show it,” returned her husband, remembering the allusion made by Carl to his stepmother.

“Oh, well, I am not curious,” said Mrs. Crawford, tossing her head.

None the less, however, she resolved to see and read the letter, if she could get hold of it without her husband’s knowledge.  He was so careless that she did not doubt soon to find it laid down somewhere.  In this she proved correct.  Before the day was over, she found Carl’s letter in her husband’s desk.  She opened and read it eagerly with a running fire of comment.

“‘Reasons which we both understand,’” she repeated, scornfully.  “That is a covert attack upon me.  Of course, I ought to expect that.  So he had a hard time.  Well, it served him right for conducting himself as he did.  Ah, here is another hit at me—­’Yet I would rather do either than live in a home made unpleasant by the persistent hostility of one member.’  He is trying to set his father against me.  Well, he won’t succeed.  I can twist Dr. Paul Crawford round my finger, luckily, and neither his son nor anyone else can diminish my influence over him.”

She read on for some time till she reached this passage:  “While my stepmother and Peter form a part of your family I can never live at home.  They both dislike me, and I am afraid I return the feeling.”  “Thanks for the information,” she muttered.  “I knew it before.  This letter doesn’t make me feel any more friendly to you, Carl Crawford.  I see that you are trying to ingratiate yourself with your father, and prejudice him against me and my poor Peter, but I think I can defeat your kind intentions.”

She folded up the letter, and replaced it in her husband’s desk.

“I wonder if my husband will answer Carl’s artful epistle,” she said to herself.  “He can if he pleases.  He is weak as water, and I will see that he goes no farther than words.”

Dr. Crawford did answer Carl’s letter.  This is his reply: 

“Dear Carl:—­I am glad to hear that you are comfortably situated.  I regret that you were so headstrong and unreasonable.  It seems to me that you might, with a little effort, have got on with your stepmother.  You could hardly expect her to treat you in the same way as her own son.  He seems to be a good boy, but I own that I have never been able to become attached to him.”

Carl read this part of the letter with satisfaction.  He knew how mean and contemptible Peter was, and it would have gone to his heart to think that his father had transferred his affection to the boy he had so much reason to dislike.

“I am glad you are pleased with your prospects.  I think I could have done better for you had your relations with your stepmother been such as to make it pleasant for you to remain at home.  You are right in thinking that I am interested in your welfare.  I hope, my dear Carl, you will become a happy and prosperous man.  I do not forget that you are my son, and I am still your affectionate father,