Will you give my love to my Cousin Alice? Tell her that I will bring
her home some rare keepsakes from Spain should they fall in my way;
and you know I will do the same for yourself, who have always been
so good and kind to me."

"The boy is not a bad boy," the mayor said, well pleased as he laid
down the letter. "It may be that I have judged him too harshly,
seeing that he set himself against what was best for his welfare.
Still, one cannot expect men's heads on boys' shoulders, and he
writes dutifully and properly. I believe it is the fault of Andrew
Carson, who was forever edging me on by reports of the boy's
laziness and carelessness. He certainly has a grudge against him,
and he assuredly exceeded his place and authority when he lifted
his hand against my wife's cousin. It seems to me truly that I have
acted somewhat hastily and wrong headedly in the matter. I shall
give Master Carson notice that at the end of a month I shall require
his services no longer--the fellow puts himself too forward. That
will please Mary; she never liked him, and women in these matters
of likes and dislikes are shrewder than we are. Perhaps when she
hears that he is going, and reads this letter, which I will forward
to her by the carrier, she may come back to me. I certainly miss
her sorely, and the household matters go all wrong now that she
is away. She ought not to have said things to me; but no wise man
thinks anything of what a woman says when she's angry; and now that
I think things over, it certainly seems to me that she had some
sort of warrant for her words. Yes, I certainly don't know what
can have come over me, unless it was that fellow, Andrew Carson.
Richard Anthony has not been considered a bad fellow else he would
never have become the Mayor of Southampton; and for fifteen years
Mary and I have got on very well together, save for the little