Most respectfully,
R. E. Lee.
[[5]] From "Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee," by Capt. Robert E. Lee. Copyright, 1904, by Doubleday, Page & Co.
Letters of Sympathy in Case of Illness
When President Alderman, of the University of Virginia, was forced to take a long rest in the mountains in 1912 because of incipient tuberculosis, the late Walter H. Page, at the time editor of the World's Work, wrote the following tenderly beautiful letter of sympathy to Mrs. Alderman:
Cathedral Avenue, Garden City, L. I.,
December 9, 1912.
My dear Mrs. Alderman:
In Raleigh the other day I heard a rumor of the sad news that your letter brings, which I have just received on my return from a week's absence. I had been hoping that it was merely a rumor. The first impression I have is thankfulness that it had been discovered so soon and that you have acted so promptly. On this I build a great hope.
But underlying every thought and emotion is the sadness of it—that it should have happened to him, now when he has done that prodigious task and borne that hard strain and was come within sight of a time when, after a period of more normal activity, he would in a few years have got the period of rest that he has won.—But these will all come yet; for I have never read a braver thing than your letter. That bravery on your part and his, together with the knowledge the doctors now have, will surely make his recovery certain and, I hope, not long delayed. If he keep on as well as he has begun, you will, I hope, presently feel as if you were taking a vacation. Forget that it is enforced.