Poor little suffering ones! how often I pitied them An occasional
warning was thrown in, but it was scarcely heeded by the mother, who
had put on towards me a reserved stateliness, that precluded all
friendly remonstrance.
At least two months of every summer Mrs. Dewey was absent from
S----, intermitting between Saratoga and Newport, where she
abandoned herself to all the excitements of fashionable dissipation.
Regularly each year we saw her name in the New York correspondence
of the Herald, as the "fascinating Mrs. D----;" the "charming wife
of Mr. D----;" or in some like style of reference. At last, coupled
with one of these allusions, was an intimation that "it might be
well if some discreet friend would whisper in the lady's ear that
she was a little too intimate with men of doubtful reputation;
particularly in the absence of her husband."
This paragraph was pointed out to me by one of my patients. I read
it with a throb of pain. A little while afterwards I passed Mr.
Floyd and Mr. Dewey in the street. They were walking rapidly, and
conversing in an excited manner.
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