Read "A Sorrowful Guest" by Sarah Orne Jewett online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Dear Helen, -- What do you say to our going to housekeeping together? / I'm a very old bachelor, with many whims; but I'm your brother, and I / don't know that there was ever an act of Parliament that we should / spend our lives on opposite shores of the Atlantic. The Athertons' / lease of our house is out next month, and I have a fancy for taking it / myself. We will call it merely an experiment, if you like; but I'm / tired of the way I live now. I'm growing gray, and I shall be / dreadfully glad to see you. We will make a real home of it, and see / something of each other; you must not ask for any more pathos than / this. Pick up whatever you can to make the house look fine, but don't / feel in the least obliged to come, or put it off until the spring. Do / just as you like. I hear the Duncans are coming home in October; / perhaps you could take passage on the same steamer. I can't believe it / is three years since I went over last. Do you think we shall know each / other? _"L'absence diminue les petits amours et augmente les grandes, / comme le vent qui eteint les bougies et rallume la feu. "_ I met that / sentiment in a story I was reading to-day, and I thought it would seem / very gallant and alluring if I put it into my letter. I think you will / not be homesick here: you will find more friends than seems possible / at first thought. I'm in a hurry to-day; but I'm none the less
Your very affectionate brother,