“‘And now, darling, I have some wonderful things to tell you. In the first place, I have abandoned, as I promised you, my trains, except for evening wear, and I trust I have lengthened my charities, and received much personal benefit thereby. I thought I would try short dresses before the Paris Exposition, and get a little accustomed to them, for another such experience as I went through with the 5th of one September would finish me entirely. Speaking of the Paris Exposition brings me to another important point. I am making extensive preparations for a European tour, and, if nothing happens, I intend to run over to England and take a look at my Brownie before I return. Now, the cream of my letter lies in the fact that my contemplated tour is to be prefaced by a brief ceremony, which will change Aspasia Huntington to Aspasia Coolidge! Yes, dear, I am going to marry Wilbur Coolidge. He has told me all about his liking for you, and I could not blame the dear boy in the least; for I know if I had been a man I should have wanted to marry you myself. I met Mr. Coolidge while in New York some five months ago, and was at once attracted toward him on account of his manly independence. His father has met with business reverses, which have reduced the family from their former magnificence to almost a state of poverty. Wilbur has proved himself a man in the emergency, putting his shoulder to the wheel, devoting himself to his profession—that of the law—and has done much toward the support of his mother and sisters; consequently, I am very proud of him. “‘Now, I want to tell you a little about Isabel and the rest of the family, but particularly about her, for I know all that you have suffered from her unkindness in the past, although you have never written me a word about it. “‘Mrs. Coolidge is a confirmed invalid, entirely broken down by disappointment and their reduced circumstances; but Isabel, instead of being the weak-minded, vain, and selfish being every one thought her to be, has, like Wilbur, risen nobly above their calamities, takes the whole charge of the household affairs and of her mother, with whom she is as patient as an angel. But she is the saddest creature I ever saw, and I believe that the girl’s heart is really broken, for her brother tells me she did truly love and esteem Sir Charles Randal, notwithstanding her inordinate desire to obtain a high position in the world. She never speaks of herself or her sorrow, but devotes herself to others. Whatever her past errors have been, she is atoning nobly for them, and I believe will come out of this furnace a pure, good woman. “‘The other girls, Viola and Alma, are charming, and they can never say enough in praise of Lady Dredmond, as they persist in calling you. “‘Now, dearest, you may expect to see me about the first of February, and don’t I long to clasp you once again in my arms, my Brownie, for, dear, it is to you I feel I owe the higher and better views which I now have of life.