Mary Isabel felt a faint , impotent resentment . She had never had anything other girls had : friends , dresses , beaus , and it was all Louisa 's fault -- Louisa who was going to make her wear a bonnet for the rest of her life . The more Mary Isabel thought of that bonnet the more she hated it . That evening Warren Marr rode down to the shore cottage on horseback and handed Mary Isabel a letter ; a strange , scrumpled , soiled , yellow letter . When Mary Isabel saw the handwriting on the envelope she trembled and turned as deadly pale as if she had seen a ghost : `` Here 's a letter for you , '' said Warren , grinning . `` It 's been a long time on the way -- nigh fifteen years . Guess the news 'll be rather stale . We found it behind the old partition when we tore it down today . '' `` It is my brother Tom 's writing , '' said Mary Isabel faintly . She went into the room trembling , holding the letter tightly in her clasped hands . Louisa had gone up to the village on an errand ; Mary Isabel almost wished she were home ; she hardly felt equal to the task of opening Tom 's letter alone . Tom had been dead for ten years and this letter gave her an uncanny sensation ; as of a message from the spirit-land . Fifteen years , ago Thomas Irving had gone to California and five years later he had died there . Mary Isabel , who had idolized her brother , almost grieved herself to death at the time . Finally she opened the letter with ice-cold fingers . It had been written soon after Tom reached California . The first two pages were filled with descriptions of the country and his `` job . '' On the third Tom began abruptly : Look here , Mary Isabel , you are not to let Louisa boss you about as she was doing when I was at home . I was going to speak to you about it before I came away , but I forgot . Lou is a fine girl , but she is too domineering , and the more you give in to her the worse it makes her .
You 're far too easy-going XXXXX your own welfare , Mary Isabel , and for your own sake I Wish you had more spunk .
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