What have you ever done for
her and what have you to offer her? She is our daughter, and needless to
say we shall still take care of her, for no one believes you capable of
it, even in that miserable place, and, of course, in time she will return
to her better wisdom, her home, and her duty. I need scarcely say we have
given up the happy months we had planned to spend in Dresden. Henry and I
can only stay at home to pray that her preposterous mania will wear itself
out in short order, as she will find herself unfitted for the ridiculous
task which she insists upon attempting against the earnest wishes of us
who have been more than father and mother to her. Of course, she has
talked volumes of her affection for us, and of her gratitude, which we do
not want--we only want her to stay with us. Please, please try to make her
come back to us--we cannot bear it long. If you are a man you will send
her to us soon. Her excuse for not returning on the day we wired our
intention to go abroad at once (and I may as well tell you now that our
intention to go was formed in order to bring affairs to a crisis and to
draw her away from your influence--we always dreaded her visit to you and
held it off for years)--her excuse was that your best friend, and, as I
understand it, your patron, had been injured in some brawl in that
Christian country of yours--a charming place to take a girl like her--and
she would not leave you in your 'distress' until more was known of the
man's injuries.
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