"You shall do as you please, Lily."
"Then I please to read it."
"Listen to me a moment first. For myself, I wish that the letter had never been written. It tells badly for the man, as I think of it. I cannot understand how any man could have brought himself to address either you or me, after having acted as he acted."
"But, mamma, we differ about all that, you know."
"Now he has written, and there is the letter,—if you choose to read it."
Lily had it in her hand, but she still sat motionless, holding it. "You think, mamma, I ought not to read it?"
"You must judge for yourself, dearest."
"And if I do not read it, what shall you do, mamma?"
"I shall do nothing;—or, perhaps, I should in such a case acknowledge it, and tell him that we have nothing more to say to him."
"That would be very stern."