ctness
and distinctness. "I don't know," the writer said, "as you expected to
hear from me, and I don't know as I expected to let you, but
circumstances alter cases, and I just wanted to drop you a line and
tell you that I have been in Pymantoning and seen your mother. She is
looking prime, and younger than ever. We had a long talk about old
times, and I told her what a mistake I made. Confession is good for the
soul, they say, and I took a big dose of it; I guess I confessed pretty
much everything; regular Topsey style. Well, your mother didn't spare
me any, and I don't know but what she was about right. The fact is, a
man on the road don't think as much about his p's and q's as he ought
as long as he is young, and if I made a bad break in that little
matrimonial venture of mine, I guess it was no more than I deserved to.
I told your mother just how I happened to meet you again, and how the
sight of you was enough to make another man of me. I was always a
little too much afraid of you, or it might have turned out different;
but I can appreciate a character like yours, and I want you to know it.
I guess your mother sized it up about right when I said all I asked was
to worship you at a distance, and she said she guessed you would look
out for the _distance._ I told her you had, up to date. I want you to
understand that I don't presume on anything, and if we seemed to have a
pretty good time after the theatre, the other night, it was because you
didn't want to spoil Mrs. Montgomery's fun, and treated me well just
because I was a friend of hers. Well, it's pretty hard to realize that
my life is ruined, and that I have got nobody but myself to thank for
it, but I guess that's what I've got to come to, sooner or later. It's
what your mother said, and I guess she was right; she didn't spare me a
bit, and I didn't want her to. I knew she would write to you, as soon
as I was gone, and tell you not to have anything to do with me; and if
she has, all I have got to say is, _all right_. I have been a bad lot,
and I don't deny it, and all I can ask now, from this time forward, is
to be kept from doing any more mischief. I don't know as I shall ever
see you again; I had a kind of presentiment I shouldn't, and I told
your mother so. I don't know but I told a little more about how kind
you were to me the other evening than what the facts would justify
exactly, but as sure as you live I didn't _mean_ to lie about it. If I
exaggerated an