My dear Marcet
We have had a lovely day here and have wished for you very much. I have thought of you so often in all these weeks since you were called to your mother -- and have longed to do something to assure you of my sympathy for you and of my own grief [page 2] and sense of loss.
It is four weeks today since I last saw your mother and then I asked her if I might not see you in New York and send you on for a visit. But she forbade it, saying that she was really better and that she could not bear to have you see her suffer. Of course I did not realize -- none of us did -- how serious her condition [page 3] was. When I heard of her changing state I could not bear to think that I had not followed my impulse to send for you.
It was hard not to be here for your mother's funeral and it has been a comfort today to go to her grave and lay a few lilies with the lovely jonquils with which Mary Fry had covered the grave this morning.
It is a soft, gray day and the little [page 4] cemetery was very peaceful and beautiful. It gave me a sense of solace and your Aunt Jane said that it comforted her to be there. Mrs. Addams is very touching in her pleasure over our visit and we have talked constantly of your dear mother and of you.
Virgil has spent part of the day with us and offers to show us the "fairy places" some time [page 5] when it is warmer. He seems to consider this an "off season" for fairies.
Hull-House April 5.
The scene has changed. Mary Fry called me to supper yesterday while I was scribbling to you and we sat with your grandmother all the evening. Now I am chaperoning a sewing class at Hull-House and they are such good, busy, orderly little girls that I can finish my letter. [page 6] What I really want to say is that I am thinking of you with affection and more sympathy than I can ever express. I believe I know every pang you are suffering and every shade of unavailing remorse and regret which one seems bound to feel at a time like this.
I do send you much love and much sympathy, dear Marcet, and I am deeply grateful for the friendship your dear mother [page 7] gave me. It is such a pleasure to me to remember our [week] at Hull's Cove last year when I really had an opportunity to know Mrs. Haldeman. My children are growing a little unruly and I must be disciplinary. Do not think of bothering to answer this. Just be assured of my concern for you and my share in your grief.
Affectionately yours
Mary Rozet Smith
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