By adopting this
expedient, one to which all who are eager to arrive at results
without encumbering themselves with details are so apt to resort,
Judith made a rapid progress in these melancholy revelations of
her mother's failing and punishment. She saw that the period of
her own birth was distinctly referred to, and even learned that the
homely name she bore was given her by the father, of whose person
she retained so faint an impression as to resemble a dream. This
name was not obliterated from the text of the letters, but stood
as if nothing was to be gained by erasing it. Hetty's birth was
mentioned once, and in that instance the name was the mother's, but
ere this period was reached came the signs of coldness, shadowing
forth the desertion that was so soon to follow. It was in this stage
of the correspondence that her mother had recourse to the plan of
copying her own epistles. They were but few, but were eloquent
with the feelings of blighted affection, and contrition. Judith
sobbed over them, until again and again she felt compelled to lay
them aside from sheer physical inability to see; her eyes being
literally obscured with tears. Still she returned to the task, with
increasing interest, and finally succeeded in reaching the end of
the latest communication that had probably ever passed between her
parents.
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