`` 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 for your own welfare , Mary Isabel , and for your own sake I Wish you had more spunk . Do n't let Louisa live your life for you ; just you live it yourself . Never mind if there is some friction at first ; Lou will give in when she finds she has to , and you 'll both be the better for it , I want you to be real happy , Mary Isabel , but you wo n't be if you do n't assert your independence . Giving in the way you do is bad for both you and Louisa . It will make her a tyrant and you a poor-spirited creature of no account in the world . Just brace up and stand firm . When she had read the letter through Mary Isabel took it to her own room and locked it in her bureau drawer . Then she sat by her window , looking out into a sea-sunset , and thought it over .
Coming XXXXX the strange way it had , the letter seemed a message from the dead , and Mary Isabel had a superstitious conviction that she must obey it .
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