Oh, Anna, Anna, how shall I begin to tell you what I know will grieve and shock your pure nature so dreadfully?
"Anna!--I love to call you Anna now, for you seem, near to me; and believe me, while I write this to you, I am conscious of no feeling of inferiority to any one bearing your proud name.

I am, or should have been, your equal, your sister; and Willie!--oh, my boy, when I think of him, the feeling comes and I almost seem to be going mad! "Cannot you guess ?--don't you know now who I am?
God forgive your brother, as I asked him to do, kneeling there by the very chair where he sat an hour since, talking to you of Lily.

I heard him, and the sound of his voice took power and strength away.

I could not move to let you know I was there, for I was, and I lay upon the floor till consciousness forsook me; and then, when I awoke again, you both were gone.
"I went to the depot, I saw him in his face to make assurance sure, and Anna, I--oh, I don't know what I am.

The world would not call me a wife, though I believed I was; but they cannot deal thus cruelly by Willie, or wash from his veins his father's blood, for I--I, who write this, I who have been a servant in the house where I should have been the mistress, am Lily--wronged, deserted Lily--and Willie is your brother's child! His father's look is in his face.