me sign that she cared for him.

Albert wrote in reply:

"HOUSE OF BONDAGE, May 20th, 1857.

"MY DEAR, GOOD FRIEND: The death of my mother has given me a great deal
of sorrow, though it did not surprise me. I remember now how many times
of late years I have given her needless trouble. For whatever mistakes
her personal peculiarities led her into, she was certainly a most
affectionate mother. I can now see, and the reflection causes me much
bitterness, that I might have been more thoughtful of her happiness
without compromising my opinions. How much trouble my self-conceit must
have given her! Your rebuke on this subject has been very fresh in mind
since I heard of her death. And I am feeling lonely, too. Mother and Katy
have gone, and more distant relatives will not care to know an outlaw.

"If I had not seen Mr. Lurton, I should not have known how much I owe to
your faithful friendship. I doubt not God will reward you. For I, too, am
coming to believe in a Providence!

"Sometimes I think this prison has done me good. There may be some truth,
after all, in that acrid saying of Mrs. Ferret's about 'sanctified
affliction,' though she _does_ know how to make even truth hateful. I
haven't learned to believe as you and Mr. Lurton would have me, and yet I
have learned not to believe so much in my own infallibility. I have been
a high-church skeptic--I thought as much of my own infallibility as poor
O'Neill in the next cell does of the Pope's. And I suppose I shall always
have a good deal of aggressiveness and uneasiness and all that about
me--I am the same restless man yet, full of projects and of opinions. I
can not be Lurton--I almost wish I could. But I have learned some things.
I am yet very unsettled in my opinions about Christ--sometimes he seems
to be a human manifestation of God, and at other times, when my skeptical
habit comes back, he seems only the divinest of men. But I believe _in_
him with all my heart, and may be I shall settle down on some definite
opinion after a while. I had a mind to ask Lurton to baptize me the other
day, but I feared he wouldn't do it. All the faith I could profess would
be that I believe enough in Christ to wish to be his disciple. I know Mr.
Lurton wouldn't think that enough. But I don't believe Jesus himself
would refuse me. His immediate followers couldn't have believed much more
than that at first. And I don't think you would refuse me baptism if you
were a minister.

"Mr. Lur