is not quite so favourable. I have Papa's letter before me. It gives but a melancholy report. Still he says that the means used has given Mama some relief and refers me to you for particulars after weighing all the circumstances and painful as the feeling of separation from you is I must ask you to favor my staying a few weeks longer till my duties are more completed then I trust I shall be able to spend more of my time with you and in fact I feel that it is a great act of injustice to you to leave you in this manner and I sincerely trust the time is not very distant when I will not have occasion to do so. Never mind the house, the slippers or anything of mine. Let your whole and undivided attention be given to Mama. If necessary you may lock up our house altogether until my return if you can manage with Jessie but these things I leave entirely to yourself. You know that I will [be] satisfied with whatever you do. I could keep writing to you to the exclusion of all other employment but now I must attend to other duties. Saturday morning 22nd Novr I wonder very much what my little slave is about this morning. I have