August 1-18 Tuesday – Sometime before Sam learned of the death of his daughter Susy, he wrote to an unidentified person, enclosing a short note from Miss Lucy Frelinghuysen. First her note, then Sam’s remarks:

I send you the little book, & hope it may touch some point of sympathy. It is not great but it shows how love develops & transforms people, & one closes it with a strong regret that a life so beautified by love as Bernadine’s might not go on here a little whether in happiness or unhappiness — they seem so unimportant compared with what she was, what she grew to be — Sincerely Yours / L. Frelinghuysen

Sam:

They say Miss F. was engaged to ex-President Arthur when he died. I will ask Chatto to send you the book; then you will see why Miss F. thinks so much of it.

I wish Susy would see herself in its heroine & follow in her footsteps [MTP]. Note: Sam’s hope for daughter Susy shows this was written before her death on Aug. 18. See NY Times Oct. 22, 1884 p.4 “President Arthur’s Bride.”