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The Letter Of Credit Chapter I - The Letter · The Susan Warner Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER I. FOR THE CHARACTERS AND THE COLORING course, I
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  Speaker 1: am responsible. But the turns of the story, even in detail,
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  Speaker 1: are almost all utterly true. S. W. CHAPTER I. THE
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  Speaker 1: LETTER Mother, I wonder how people do when they are
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  Speaker 1: going to write a book. Do? repeated her mother. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I wonder how they begin. I suppose they have something
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  Speaker 1: to tell, and then they tell it, said simple Mrs. Carpenter. No, no,
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  Speaker 1: but I mean a story. What story have you got there?
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  Speaker 1: The mother was shelling peas. The daughter, a girl of
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  Speaker 1: twelve years old, perhaps, was sitting on the floor at
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  Speaker 1: her feet with an octavo volume in her lap. The
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  Speaker 1: floor was clean enough to sit upon, clean enough almost
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  Speaker 1: to eat off. It was the floor of the kitchen
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  Speaker 1: of a country farmhouse. This is the talisman, the girl
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  Speaker 1: answered her mother's question. Oh, mother, when I am old enough,
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  Speaker 1: I should like to write stories. Why? I should think
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  Speaker 1: it would be so nice. Why, mother, one could imagine
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  Speaker 1: oneself anything. could you said her mother i never imagined
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  Speaker 1: myself anything but what i was ah but perhaps you
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  Speaker 1: and i are different which was undoubtedly the fact as
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  Speaker 1: any stander-by might have seen with half an eye good
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  Speaker 1: types both of them too the mother fair delicate featured
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  Speaker 1: with sweet womanly eyes must have been exceedingly pretty in
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  Speaker 1: her young days she was pretty now but the face
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  Speaker 1: showed traces of care and was worn with life-work While
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  Speaker 1: she talked and now and then looked at her daughter,
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  Speaker 1: her fingers were untiringly busy with the peas and peas
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  Speaker 1: pods and never paused for a minute. The girl on
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  Speaker 1: the floor did not look like her mother. She was
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  Speaker 1: dark-eyed and dark-haired, with a dark complexion, too, which at
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  Speaker 1: present was not fine, and the eyes, large and handsome eyes,
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  Speaker 1: revealed a fire and intensity and mobility of nature which
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  Speaker 1: was very diverse from the woman's gentle strength. mrs carpenter
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  Speaker 1: might be intense too after her fashion but it was
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  Speaker 1: the fashion of the proverbial still waters that run deep
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  Speaker 1: and i do not mean that there was any shallowness
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  Speaker 1: about the girl's nature though assuredly the placidity would be
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  Speaker 1: wanting i wish your father would forbid you to read
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  Speaker 1: stories mrs carpenter went on why mother i don't believe
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  Speaker 1: they are good for you but what harm should they
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  Speaker 1: do me life is not a story i don't want
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  Speaker 1: you to think it is why shouldn't it be perhaps
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  Speaker 1: my life will be a story mother i think it
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  Speaker 1: will said the girl slowly i shouldn't want my life
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  Speaker 1: to be always like this are you not happy oh
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  Speaker 1: yes mother but then by and by i should like
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  Speaker 1: to be a princess or to have adventures and to
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  Speaker 1: see things like the people in stories you will never
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  Speaker 1: be a princess my child you are a poor farmer's
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  Speaker 1: daughter you had better make up your mind to it
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  Speaker 1: and try to be the best thing you can be
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  Speaker 1: in the circumstances You mean, do my duty and shell peas?
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  Speaker 1: asked the girl, somewhat doubtfully, looking at her mother's fingers
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  Speaker 1: and the quick stripped pea pods passing through them. Is
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  Speaker 1: father poor, mother? Yes. He has a good farm, he says. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: but it is encumbered heavily, and Mrs. Carpenter sighed. Rotha
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  Speaker 1: had often heard her mother sigh so. It was a
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  Speaker 1: breath with a burden. I don't know what you mean
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  Speaker 1: by encumbered. It is not needful, you should know just yet.
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  Speaker 1: but i would like to know mother won't you tell
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  Speaker 1: me it is heavily mortgaged and that you do not
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  Speaker 1: understand never mind he has a great deal of money
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  Speaker 1: to pay out for it every year the interest on
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  Speaker 1: the mortgages and that keeps us poor why must he
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  Speaker 1: pay it because the farm is pledged for the debt
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  Speaker 1: and if the interest this yearly money were not paid
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  Speaker 1: the farm itself would go go how be sold for
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  Speaker 1: the money due on it there was silence awhile during
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  Speaker 1: which only the peapods rustled and fell then the girl
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  Speaker 1: asked what should we do then mother if the farm
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  Speaker 1: was sold i do not know the words came faint
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  Speaker 1: does it trouble you mother it need not trouble you
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  Speaker 1: rotha it cannot happen unless the lord will and that
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  Speaker 1: is enough now you may carry these pea-pods out and
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  Speaker 1: give them to the pigs mother said rotha as she
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  Speaker 1: slowly rose and laid away her book all you say
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  Speaker 1: makes me wish more than ever that i were a
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  Speaker 1: princess or something you may be something said Mrs. Carpenter,
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  Speaker 1: laughing softly, but with a very sweet merriment. Now, take
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  Speaker 1: away this basket. Rotha stooped for the basket, and then
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  Speaker 1: stood still, looking out of the window. Across the intervening
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  Speaker 1: piece of kitchen garden, rows of peas and tufts of
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  Speaker 1: asparagus greenery, her eye went to the road, where a
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  Speaker 1: buggy had just stopped. Maybe something is going to happen now,
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  Speaker 1: she said. Who is that, mother? There is somebody getting
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  Speaker 1: out of a wagon and tying his horse. Now he
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  Speaker 1: is coming in. it is siah barker mother mrs carpenter
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  Speaker 1: paused to look out of the window and then hastily
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  Speaker 1: throwing her peas into the pot of boiling water went
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  Speaker 1: herself to the door a young countryman met her there
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  Speaker 1: with a whip in his hand mornin miss carpenter kin
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  Speaker 1: ye help the distressed what's the matter siah shot if
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  Speaker 1: i know but he's took pretty bad what pray wal
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  Speaker 1: i skurce can tell that he's an englisher come to
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  Speaker 1: our place this mornin and axed for a horse and
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  Speaker 1: wagon to carry him to rochester and he's got so
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  Speaker 1: fur that's two miles o the way and he can't
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  Speaker 1: go no furder i guess he's took powerful bad ill
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  Speaker 1: is he says so and he looks it cannot go
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  Speaker 1: on to rochester it's fifteen mile miss carpenter i wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: like to be the man to drive him he can't
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  Speaker 1: go another foot he says he was took very sudden
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  Speaker 1: Cannot you turn about and carry him back to Medwayville? Now,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Carpenter, you're a Christian and a soft-hearted one. We
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  Speaker 1: all know. Can't you let him come and rest a bit?
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you could give him something that would set him up.
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  Speaker 1: You understand doctrine. Bust rate. Mrs. Carpenter looked grave, considered.
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  Speaker 1: Is this your idea or the stranger's, Sire? It's his'n,
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  Speaker 1: if it's anybody's in particular. He told me to set
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  Speaker 1: him down some airs, for he couldn't hold out to
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  Speaker 1: go on no how. and then he seed this house
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  Speaker 1: and he made me stop what's the matter with him
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  Speaker 1: well it's sunthin in his insides i guess he don't
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  Speaker 1: say nothin but he gits as white as a piece
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  Speaker 1: o chalk and then purple atter it mrs carpenter made
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  Speaker 1: no more delay but bad saya fetched the sick man
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  Speaker 1: in and herself hastily threw open the windows of the
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  Speaker 1: spare room and put sheets on the bed she had
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  Speaker 1: time for all her preparations for the bringing the stranger
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  Speaker 1: into the house was a work of some difficulty and
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  Speaker 1: not accomplished without the help of one of the hired
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  Speaker 1: men about the farm when he came he was far
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  Speaker 1: too ill to give any account of himself his dress
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  Speaker 1: proclaimed him a well-to-do man and belonging to the better
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  Speaker 1: classes but that was all they knew as mrs carpenter
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  Speaker 1: came out from seeing the stranger put to bed in
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  Speaker 1: the spare room her husband came in from the field
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  Speaker 1: an intellectual-looking man in spite of his farmer's dress and
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  Speaker 1: handsome but thin worn with an undue flush on his
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  Speaker 1: cheek and a cough that sounded hollow he was very
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  Speaker 1: like his little daughter who instantly laid hold of him
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  Speaker 1: father father something has happened guess what there's a sick
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  Speaker 1: man stopped here and he is in the spare room
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  Speaker 1: and we don't know the least bit who he is
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  Speaker 1: only saya barker said he was english or an englisher
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  Speaker 1: he said We don't know a bit who he is,
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  Speaker 1: and his clothes are very nice, like a gentleman's, and
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  Speaker 1: his valise is a beautiful, handsome, leather one. You use
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  Speaker 1: rather more adjectives than necessary, Rotha. But, father, that is
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  Speaker 1: something to happen, isn't it? You speak as if you
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  Speaker 1: were glad of it. I am not glad the man
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  Speaker 1: is sick. I am just glad to have something happen.
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  Speaker 1: Things never do happen here. I am afraid your mother
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  Speaker 1: will hardly feel as much pleased as you do. Is
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  Speaker 1: the man very ill, Eunice? I think so. He is
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  Speaker 1: too ill to tell how he feels. He may be
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  Speaker 1: on your hands, then, for a day or two. He
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  Speaker 1: may for more than that. How can you manage? said Mr. Carpenter,
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  Speaker 1: looking anxiously at the sweet face, which already bore such
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  Speaker 1: lines of care, and was so work-worn. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I shall find out, Mrs. Carpenter answered, as she was
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  Speaker 1: dishing the dinner. The Lord seems to have given me
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  Speaker 1: this to do, and he knows.' I guess what he
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  Speaker 1: gives me to do, I can do. I don't see
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  Speaker 1: how you can say that, mother, Rotha put in here. What?
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  Speaker 1: This man was taken sick on the road and happened
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  Speaker 1: to come in here. How can you say the Lord
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  Speaker 1: gave him to you to take care of? Nothing happens, Rotha.
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  Speaker 1: Suppose his sickness had come on a little sooner or
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  Speaker 1: a little later. Why was it just here that he
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  Speaker 1: found he could go on no further? Do you suppose
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  Speaker 1: there was any why about it? father and mother both
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  Speaker 1: smiled the father answered do you suppose i would plough
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  Speaker 1: a field without meaning to get any fruit from it
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  Speaker 1: no father neither does the lord my child rotha pondered
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  Speaker 1: the subject and had occasion to ponder it more as
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  Speaker 1: the days went on she found she had some share
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  Speaker 1: in the consequences of this happening more dishes to wash
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  Speaker 1: and more sweeping and dusting and churning and setting of
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  Speaker 1: tables and cleaning of vegetables and she quite ceased to
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  Speaker 1: be glad that something had come to them out of
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  Speaker 1: the common run of affairs. for several days her mother
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  Speaker 1: was much engaged in the care of the sick man
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  Speaker 1: and put all she could of the housework upon rotha's
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  Speaker 1: hands the nursing kept herself very busy the sickness was
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  Speaker 1: at first severe and then mending was gradual so that
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  Speaker 1: it was full two weeks before the stranger could leave
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  Speaker 1: his room mrs carpenter had no servant in the house
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  Speaker 1: she did everything for him with her own hands and
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  Speaker 1: with as much care and tenderness and exactness it was
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  Speaker 1: done as if the sick man had been a dear
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  Speaker 1: friend by day and by night nothing failed him and
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  Speaker 1: so in about two weeks he was healed and had
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  Speaker 1: only his weakness to recover from mrs carpenter often looked
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  Speaker 1: tired and pale during those weeks but cheerfulness and courage
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  Speaker 1: never gave out I have learned something, she said one
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  Speaker 1: day at dinner, as the two weeks were ended. What
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  Speaker 1: is that? her daughter asked. The name of our guest. Well,
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  Speaker 1: who is he? He is English. His name is Southwode.
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  Speaker 1: He came to America on business two months ago, to
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  Speaker 1: New York, then found it was needful for him to
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  Speaker 1: see some people in Rochester, and was on his way
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  Speaker 1: when he was taken ill at our door. That's all?
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  Speaker 1: Pretty much all. He is not much of a talker.
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  Speaker 1: i never found out so much till to-day it is
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  Speaker 1: quite enough i suppose he will go on to rochester
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  Speaker 1: now not for two or three days yet lef he
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  Speaker 1: is very weak but i guess we will have him
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  Speaker 1: out to supper with us this evening you may put
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  Speaker 1: a glass of roses on the table rotha and make
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  Speaker 1: it look very nice and set the table in the
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  Speaker 1: hall unlike most of its kind this farmhouse had a
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  Speaker 1: wide hall running through the middle of it probably it
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  Speaker 1: had been built originally for somewhat different occasion At any rate,
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  Speaker 1: the hall served as a great comfort to Mrs. Carpenter
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  Speaker 1: in the summer season, enabling her to get out of
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  Speaker 1: the hot kitchen without opening her best room, the parlor.
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  Speaker 1: It was a pretty enough view that greeted the stranger
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  Speaker 1: here when he was called to supper and crept out
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  Speaker 1: of his sick room. Doors stood open at the front
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  Speaker 1: and rear of the house, letting the breeze play through.
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  Speaker 1: It brought the odors of the new hay and the
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  Speaker 1: shorn grass, mixed with the breath of roses. Roses were
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  Speaker 1: on the table, too. a great glass full of them
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  Speaker 1: not skilfully arranged certainly but heavy with sweetness and lovely
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  Speaker 1: in various hues of red and blush white a special
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  Speaker 1: comfortable chair was placed for him and a supper served
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  Speaker 1: with which an epicure could have found no fault mrs
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  Speaker 1: carpenter's bread was of the lightest and whitest the butter
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  Speaker 1: was as if the cows had been eating roses the
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  Speaker 1: cold ham was cured after an old receipt and tender
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  Speaker 1: and juicy and savory to suit any fastidious appetite and
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  Speaker 1: there were big golden raspberries and cream almost as golden
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  Speaker 1: out of doors the eye saw green fields with an
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  Speaker 1: elm standing here and there and on one side a
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  Speaker 1: bit of the kitchen garden mr southwode was a silent
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  Speaker 1: man at least he was certainly silent here but he
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  Speaker 1: was observant and his looks went quietly from one thing
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  Speaker 1: to another taking it all in perhaps the combination was
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  Speaker 1: strange to him and gave him matter for study there
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  Speaker 1: was conversation too as the meal went on which occupied
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  Speaker 1: his ears though he could hardly be said to take
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  Speaker 1: any active part in it his host made kind efforts
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  Speaker 1: for his entertainment and rotha and her father had always
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  Speaker 1: something to discuss mr southwode listened it was not the
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  Speaker 1: sort of talk he expected to hear in a farmhouse
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  Speaker 1: the girl was full of intelligence the father quite able
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  Speaker 1: to meet her and evidently doing it with delight the
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  Speaker 1: questions they talked about were worthy the trouble and while
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  Speaker 1: on the one hand there was keen inquisitiveness and natural
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  Speaker 1: acumen on the other there was knowledge and the habit
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  Speaker 1: of thought and ease of expression mr southwode listened and
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  Speaker 1: now and then let his eye go over to the
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  Speaker 1: fair placid matronly face at the head of the table
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  Speaker 1: mrs carpenter did not talk much yet he saw that
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  Speaker 1: she understood and more He saw that in both father
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  Speaker 1: and mother there was culture and literary taste and literary knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: Yet she did her own work, and he came in
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  Speaker 1: to-day in his shirt-sleeves from the mowing of his own fields. Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Southwode drew conclusions, partly false, perhaps, but partly true. He
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  Speaker 1: thought these people had seen what are called better days.
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  Speaker 1: He was sure that they were going through more or
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  Speaker 1: less of a struggle now. moreover he saw that the
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  Speaker 1: farmer was not strong in body or sound in health
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  Speaker 1: and he perceived that the farmer's wife knew it the
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  Speaker 1: supper ended a new scene opened for his consideration with
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  Speaker 1: quick and skilful hands the mother and daughter cleared the
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  Speaker 1: table carrying the things into the kitchen rotha brought a
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  Speaker 1: bible and laid it before her father and mother and
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  Speaker 1: daughter resumed their seats mr carpenter read a chapter like
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  Speaker 1: a man who both knew and loved it and then
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  Speaker 1: a book being given to the stranger, the other three
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  Speaker 1: set up a hymn. There was neither formality nor difficulty.
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  Speaker 1: As the one had read, so they all sang, as
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  Speaker 1: if they loved it. The voices were not remarkable. What
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  Speaker 1: was remarkable, to the guest, was the sweet intonations and
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  Speaker 1: the peculiar appropriation with which the song was sung. It
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  Speaker 1: was a very common hymn. Jesus, I love thy charming name,
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  Speaker 1: tis music to my ear. and mr southwode noticed a
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  Speaker 1: thing which greatly stirred his curiosity as the singing went
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  Speaker 1: on the lines of those careworn faces relaxed mrs carpenter's
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  Speaker 1: brow lost its shadow her husband's face wore an incipient
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  Speaker 1: smile it was quite plain that both of them had
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  Speaker 1: laid down for the moment the burden which it was
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  Speaker 1: also quite plain they carried at other times what had
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  Speaker 1: become of it and what power had unloosed them from
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  Speaker 1: it not the abstract love of music certainly though the
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  Speaker 1: melody which they sang was sweet and the notes floated
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  Speaker 1: out upon the evening air with a kind of grave
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  Speaker 1: joy so as the summer breeze was wafted in there
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  Speaker 1: was a harmony somehow between the outer world and this
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  Speaker 1: little inner world for the time which moved mr southwode
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  Speaker 1: strangely though he could not at all understand it he
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  Speaker 1: made no remark when the service was over either upon
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  Speaker 1: that or upon any other subject. Of course, the service
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  Speaker 1: ended with a prayer, not a long one, and, as
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  Speaker 1: it was in the reading and singing, so in this.
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  Speaker 1: Every word was simply said and meant, so evidently that
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  Speaker 1: the stranger was singularly impressed with the reality of the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing, as contradistinguished from all formal or merely duty work,
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  Speaker 1: and as being a matter of enjoyment to those who
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  Speaker 1: engaged in it. he had several occasions for renewing his
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  Speaker 1: observations for mr southwode's condition of weakness detained him yet
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  Speaker 1: several days at the farmhouse he established for himself during
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  Speaker 1: this interval the character he had gained of a silent
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  Speaker 1: man however one afternoon he broke through his habit and
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  Speaker 1: spoke it was the day before he intended to continue
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  Speaker 1: his journey rotha had gone to the field with her
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  Speaker 1: father to have some fun in the hay mr southwode
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  Speaker 1: and mrs carpenter sat together in the wide farmhouse hall
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  Speaker 1: the day being very warm they had come to the
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  Speaker 1: coolest place they could find mrs carpenter was busy with
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  Speaker 1: mending clothes her guests for some time sat idly watching
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  Speaker 1: her admiring as he had done often already the calm
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  Speaker 1: sweet strength of this woman's face what a beauty she
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  Speaker 1: must have been once he thought all the lines were
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  Speaker 1: finely drawn and delicate and the soul that looked forth
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  Speaker 1: of them was refined by nature and purified by patience
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  Speaker 1: mr southwode had something to say to her this afternoon
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  Speaker 1: and did not know how to begin your husband seems
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  Speaker 1: to have a fine farm here he remarked it is
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  Speaker 1: i believe mrs carpenter answered without lifting her eyes from
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  Speaker 1: her darning he took me over some of his ground
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  Speaker 1: this morning he knows what to do with it too
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  Speaker 1: it is in good order it would be in good
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  Speaker 1: order If my husband had his full strength, yes, I
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  Speaker 1: am sorry to see he has not. Did he say
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  Speaker 1: anything to you about it? The wife inquired presently, with
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  Speaker 1: a smothered apprehensiveness which touched her companion. He answered, however, indifferently,
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  Speaker 1: in the negative. I don't like his cough, though, he
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  Speaker 1: went on after a little interval. Have you had advice
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  Speaker 1: for him? There was a startled look of pain in
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  Speaker 1: the eyes which again met him. and the lips closed
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  Speaker 1: upon one another a little more firmly they always had
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  Speaker 1: a firm though soft set and the corners of the
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  Speaker 1: mouth told of long and patient endurance now the face
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  Speaker 1: told of another stab of pain met and borne he
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  Speaker 1: would not call in anybody she said faintly that was
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  Speaker 1: not what mr southwode had meant to talk about though
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: closely connected with the subject of his thoughts he would
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: try again i owe you a great debt of gratitude
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: mrs carpenter he said after a long enough pause had ensued,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and beginning on another side, I presume you have saved
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: my life. I am very glad we have been able
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: to do anything, she said quietly. There is no need
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: of thanks. But I must speak them, or I should
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: not deserve to live. It astonishes me how you should
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: be so kind to an entire stranger. That's why you
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: needed it, she said with a pleasant smile. Yes, yes,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: my need is one thing. That was plain enough. But
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: if everybody took care of other people's needs, why, you
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: have done everything for me, night and day mrs carpenter
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: you have not spared yourself in the least and i
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: have given you a deal of trouble i did not
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: think it trouble she said in the same way there
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: is no need to say anything about it excuse me
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: i must say something or earn my own contempt but
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: what made you do all that for a person who
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: was nothing to you i do not understand that sort
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: of thing in such a degree perhaps you do not
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: put it the right way she responded anybody who is
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: in trouble is something to me what pray said he
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: quickly my neighbor she said with that slight pleasant smile
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: again don't you know the gospel rule is to do
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: to others what you would wish them to do to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: you i never saw anybody before who observed that rule
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: didn't you i am sorry for that it is a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: pleasant rule to follow pleasant her guest echoed excuse me
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: you cannot mean that i mean it yes certainly and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: there is another thing mr southwode i like to do
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: whatever my master gives me to do and he gave
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: you to me to take care of did he i
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: think so you did it said the stranger slowly mrs
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: carpenter i am under very great obligations to you you
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: are very welcome she said simply you have done more
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: for me than you know i never saw what religion
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: can be what religion is until i saw it in
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: your house she was silent now and he was silent
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: also for some minutes not knowing exactly how to go
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: on he felt instinctively that he must not offer money
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: here the people were poor unquestionably at the same time
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: they did not belong to the class that can take
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: that sort of pay for service he never thought of
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: offering it they were quite his equals mr carpenter was
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: so good as to tell me something of his affairs
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: as we walked this morning he began again i am
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: sorry to hear that his land is heavily encumbered yes
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: mrs carpenter said with a sigh and a shadow crossing
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: her face that sort of thing cannot be helped sometimes
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: but it is a bother and it leads to more
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: bother well i should like to be looked upon as
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a friend by you and your husband but i shall
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: be a friend from a good way off mrs carpenter
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: do not be offended at my plain speaking i would
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: say that if ever you find yourself in difficulties and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: need a friend's help i would like you to remember
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: me and deliver that letter according to the address he
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: handed her as he spoke a letter sealed and addressed
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to messrs bell and buckingham forty six bar street new
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: york mrs carpenter turned the letter over in silent surprise
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: looked at the great red seal and read the direction
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: keep it safe mr southwode went on and use it
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: if ever you have occasion do not open it for
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: i shall not be at the place where it is
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: to be delivered and an open letter would not carry
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the same credit with the letter if ever you have
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: occasion to make use of it enclose a card with
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: your address that my agent may know where to find
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: you you are very kind Mrs. Carpenter said in a
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: little bewilderment, but nothing of this kind is necessary. I
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: hope it may not be needed. However, I shall feel
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: better if you will promise me to do as I
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: have said, if ever you do need it. Mrs. Carpenter
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: gave the promise and looked at the letter curiously as
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: she put it away. Would the time ever come when
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: she would be driven to use it? Such a time
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: could not come unless after the wreck of her home
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and her life happiness. Never could come while her husband lived.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: If it came, what would matter then? But there was
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the letter, almost something uncanny. It looked like a messenger
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: out of the unknown future.