God knows how grievous it has been to me to set down on paper some of the facts that I have here narrated.

You as a dutiful son will reverence the name even of a father whom you never knew; but you must remember that his sister did more; she loved him with a single-hearted devotion, and it still grieves her to the quick to write anything which may seem to detract from his memory.

Only, above all things, let us speak the truth.

Much of what I have told you needs, I feel, further explanation, but this I cannot give, for I do not understand the circumstances.

Mr.Gaskell, your guardian, will, I believe, add to this account a few notes of his own, which may tend to elucidate some points, as he is in possession of certain facts of which I am still ignorant.
MR.