September 28 Friday – About this day Sam went to Fairhaven, Mass. for the weekend. His Oct. 2 to Clara reveals he left Fairhaven for Dublin on Oct. 1.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Jean, 1:30 and 6:00 on porch.

Much of the day I have been out in the sunshine in the open field to the north. Jean’s condition being worse I wrote lengthily to Dr. Peterson in Europe. She subconsciously feels my weakness & all her venomous points are to the fore; for it is absolutely essential that a person who is mentally strong should be with her & should fearlessly direct her. But in the afternoon AB came out & found me near the quivering white birch trees & after a good talk he read aloud to me from “Madame Butterfly”. The darlingest saddest movingest little story in the world. Dear AB’s voice shook & broke & stopped & he wept over [it.] How sweet it is to see a man weep. I have never seen but one other really sob, & those sobs were so strong, so uncontrollable that the man was transfigured by them & that man was XX. AB knows so much about the strong artistic creatures of America. John Luther Long is a friend of his & today he said, “Long has the soul of an angel.” I don’t see how any man can reach into the heart of a woman as he has done in “Madame Butterfly” & in “Purple Eyes” [MTP 122-123]. Note: John Luther Long (1861-1927), lawyer and writer best known for his short story “Madame Butterfly,” based on his sister’s recollections, a Methodist missionary to Japan; see Gribben 418; MTB 1480.