March 13 Sunday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick, who evidently had just been in Bermuda with her mother but had left on a family emergency.
Dorothy dear, I am so sorry to hear the sad news that hurries you & your mother home. Yesterday you did not come to us, & we wondered if something was wrong, I could not go out at night yet, & had been shut up with my cough since Wednesday morning—a fresh accession to it—so I sent my man servant to inquire, & he brought word from the hotel that you had received a cable that your uncle was very ill & you had taken ship at once. The world seems full of trouble for us all.
The young people came yesterday afternoon, after the rain, & played tennis, but I did not go out doors; I was out Thursday afternoon & played games, but had a hard night to pay for it. This is now the fourth day that Helen has been in bed, & I think her mother ought to have been in bed yesterday, but she stayed up to take care of the company. All this illness comes of my catching a cold in the head 3 weeks ago from a visitor who brought it from America, The household caught it from me. Mine ran into bronchitis.
The Colliers arrived last Friday, but I only learned it this evening, for they sent me no word & will have to be scolded. Mr. Collier is ailing—the New York winter has been too much for him.
I am so sorry you had to go away, for I think a few weeks’ rest in this climate would be good for you, dear.
Please give you mother my kindest regards. With lots of love / ... [MTP].
Owen M. Connelly wrote from Phila. to ask Sam if he saw “any merit in her compositions,” seeing as she had “been a student of Shakespeare & Bacon for 25 years” [MTP].
Grace A. Hubbard wrote from Barnard College, NYC to ask Sam to appear at the college [MTP].