“You wouldn’t believe I could do it, and I am not sure of it yet myself; but I wanted to prepare you before _he_ breaks the news. There’s a whole lot to tell that I won’t bore you with--for you do hate to be bored, you crazy boy. Wayne, I’m going to marry your father! Don’t be angry--please! I know everything that you will think when you read this--but mama has driven me to it. She never forgave me for letting you go, and life with her has become intolerable. And please believe this, Wayne. I really respect and admire your father more than any man I have met, and can’t you see what it will mean to me to get away from this hideous life I have been leading? Why, Wayne, I’d rather die than go on as we have lived all these years, knocking around the world and mama raising money to keep us going in ways I can’t speak of. You know the whole story of _that_. I let mama think I am doing this to please her, but I am not. I am doing it to get away from her. I have made her promise to let me alone, and I will do all I can for her. She’s going abroad right after my marriage and I hate to say it of my own mother, but I hope never to see her again. “Of course you could probably stop the marriage by telling your father how near _we_ came to hitting it off. I have always felt that you were unjust to me in that--I really cared more for you than I knew--but that’s all over now. That was another of mama’s mistakes. She let her greed get the better of her and I suffered. But let us be good friends--shan’t we? You know more about me than anybody, Wayne--how ignorant I am, and all that. Why, I had to study hard--mama suggested it, that’s the kind of thing she _can_ do--to learn to talk to your father about politics and philanthropy and those things. If anything should happen--if you should spoil it all, I don’t know what mama would do; but it would be something unpleasant, be sure of that. She sold everything we had to follow your father about to those small, select places he loves so well. “I am going to try to live up to your father’s good name. I don’t believe I’m bad. I’m just a kind of featherweight; and you will be nice to me, won’t you, when I come? Your father has told me everything--about the old house and how it belongs to you. Of course you won’t run away and leave me and you will help me to hit it off with your sister, too. He says she’s a little difficult, but I know she must be interesting. As you see, I’ve taken mama’s name by her second marriage since _our_ little affair. Explanations had grown tiresome and mama enjoys playing to the refined sensibilities of those nice people who think three marriages are not quite respectable for one woman....” He read on to the end, through more in the same strain. He flinched at the reference to the home and to his sister, but at the close he lighted a cigarette and re-read the whole calmly.