trenchant lately? I'm afraid I don't appreciate very 'cutely—"miss half the 'touches,'" he used to tell me (though I think I have made him a present of a "touch" to-day). But you know how glad we would both be to read some of his things; so you might send one sometimes, dear mother, without him knowing. For we owe him so much! And, besides what he did for me afterwards, he was always so nice and brotherly with Gladys. I know she thought so at the time, though she doesn't speak about him much now—I can't think why. You're the one she thinks of most, dearest mother; you're her model and her pattern for life!
'The mail-boy has begun to remonstrate. He'll have to gallop the whole way to the "jolly" township, he says, if I am not quick. So I must break off; but I will answer your dear letter more fully next mail, or, better still, Gladdie shall write herself. Till then, good-bye, and dearest love from us both.
'Ever your affectionate son,
'Alfred.
