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 in 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 . She had always had a great respect for Tom 's opinion . He was right -- oh , she felt that he was right . What a pity she had not received the letter long ago , before the shackles of habit had become so firmly riveted . But it was not too late yet . She would rebel at last and -- how had Tom phrased it -- oh , yes , assert her independence . She owed it to Tom ; It had been his wish -- and he was dead -- and she would do her best to fulfil it . `` I sha n't get a bonnet , '' thought Mary Isabel determinedly . `` Tom would n't have liked me in a bonnet . From this out I 'm just going to do exactly as Tom would have liked me to do , no matter how afraid I am of Louisa . And , oh , I am horribly afraid of her . '' Mary Isabel was every whit as much afraid the next morning after breakfast but she did not look it , by reason of the flush on her cheeks and the glint in her brown eyes .
She had put Tom 's letter in the bosom of her dress and she pressed her fingertips on it XXXXX the crackle might give her courage .
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