"I am conscious that you must have thought me rude and
ungrateful--perhaps even a little mad--when I returned your kindness last
night, in honoring me with a visit, by using language which has justified
you in treating me as a stranger.

"Fortunately for myself, I gave you my autobiography to read. After what
you now know of me, I may hope that your sense of justice will make some
allowance for a man, tried (I had almost written, cursed) by such
suffering as mine.

"There are other deaf persons, as I have heard, who set me a good
example.

"They feel the consolations of religion. Their sweet tempers find relief
even under the loss of the most precious of all the senses. They mix with
society; submitting to their dreadful isolation, and preserving
unimpaired sympathy with their happier fellow-creatures who can hear. I
am not one of those persons. With sorrow I say it--I never have
submitted, I never can submit, to my hard fate.

"Let me not omit to ask your indulgence for my behavior, when we met at
the cottage this morning.

"What unfavorable impression I may have produced on you, I dare not
inquire. So little capable am I of concealing the vile feelings which
sometimes get the better of me, that Miss Cristel (observe that I mention
her with respect) appears to have felt positive alarm, on your account,
when she looked at me.

"I may tell you, in confidence, that this charming person came to my side