DEAR GOODTHINKER.394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf2itBxJA6a
Ahh! What a pleasure it was to step into the cold, draughty hall here at Wellfall, every bone in ache from that abominable coach in need of instant relief from my distended bladder----and to see a letter addressed in your own inimitable scrawl propped on the obscene little cheery-wood table beside the door! Be assure that I set to deciphering it as soon as the needs of my body were attended to (in a coldly ornate downstairs bathroom, so cold that I could see my breath rising right before my eyes!)
Oh, how glad I am to hear that you are recovered from the miasma that has so long set in your lungs, though I assure you that I do sympathize with the moral dilemma the cure has afflicted you with. Imagine that! An ailing abolitionist healed by the sunny climes of slave-struck Florida! Still and all, Goodthinker, I ask you as a friend who has also walked in the valley of the shadow of death, to take care of yourself and not make a dangerous journey back to Massachusetts until bidden by your body to do so. Your fine mind and decisive pen cannot serve us if you are clay, and if the Southern zone is a healing one, is there is no poetic justice to be found in that? 394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH1MHNeCZjs
Yes, the house is quite as fine as I had been led to believe by my cousin's executors, but rather more sinister. It sits atop a huge and jutting point of land perhaps three miles north of Thornapple and nine miles north of Styrewood. Behind it are some four acres of grounds, gone back to the wild in the most formidable manner known to man----junipers, scrub vines, bushes, and various forms of creeper climb wildly over the picturesque stone walls that divide the estate from the town domain. Grotesque imitations of Greek statuary peer blindly through the wrack from atop various hillocks----they seem, in the majority of cases, about to pounce on the occasional passerby. My cousin Theodor's tastes seem to have run the gamut from the unacceptable to the downright horrific. There is still an odd little summer house which has been nearly buried in scarlet sumac and a terrifying sundial in the midst of what once must have been a lovely garden. It adds a final lunatic touch.394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRHR4CD1PL
But the view from the parlour (sic) more than excuses this: I command a dizzying view of the rocks at the foot of Wellfall Head and the Atlantic itself. A huge, bellied bay window looks out on this, and a huge, toadlike secretary stands beside it. It will do nicely for the start of that novel which I have spoken so long (and tiresomely, no doubt.)394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpgAIsWEp0
Today it's been gray with occasional splatters of rain. As I look out, all seems to be a study in slate----the rocks, old and worn as Time itself, the sky, and of course the sea, which crashes against the granite fangs below with a sound that is not so much a sound as it is a vibration-----Oh, how I feel the very waves with my feet even as I write this! It is not a wholly unpleasant sensation, I assure you.394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJE4NMD8gA0
I know you frown upon my solitary habits, dear Goodthinker, but I promise you that I am fine and happy. Edgar is with me, as practical, silent, and as dependable as ever, and by midweek, I am sure that between the two of us we shall have straightened our affairs and made arrangement for necessary deliveries from town----and a company of cleaning women to begin blowing the dust from this place!394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwEYg6tKiHY
I will close now. There are so many things as yet to be seen, rooms to explore, and doubtless a thousand pieces of execrable furniture to be viewed by these tender eyes. Once again, my thanks for the touch of a familiar brought by your letter, and for your continuing regard.394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmSjglXskb
Give my love to your wife, as you both have mine.394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSRF7d24Gx6
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CHARLES394Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVG4ce7hHSd
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