I missed Father miserably and longed passionately for the very tasks and vigils that had evoked their pity . This letter did not seem like one of those . I opened it and took out some stiff , blackly written sheets . They were undated and , turning to the last , I saw that they were unsigned . With a not unpleasant tingling of interest I sat down by my desk to read . The letter began abruptly : You will not know by whom this is written . Do not seek to know -- now or ever . It is only from behind the veil of your ignorance of my identity that I can ever write to you fully and freely as I wish to write -- can say what I wish to say in words denied to a formal and conventional expression of sympathy . Dear lady , let me say to you thus what is in my heart . I know what your sorrow is , and I think I know what your loneliness must be -- the sorrow of a broken tie , the loneliness of a life thrown emptily back on itself . I know how you loved your father -- how you must have loved him if those eyes and brow and mouth speak truth , for they tell of a nature divinely rich and deep , giving of its wealth and tenderness ungrudgingly to those who are so happy as to be the objects of its affection . To such a nature bereavement must bring a depth and an agony of grief unknown to shallower souls . I know what your father 's helplessness and need of you meant to you . I know that now life must seem to you a broken and embittered thing and , knowing this , I venture to send this greeting across the gulf of strangerhood between us , telling you that my understanding sympathy is fully and freely yours , and bidding you take heart for the future , which now , it may be , looks so heartless and hopeless to you . Believe me , dear lady , it will be neither . Courage will come to you with the kind days . You will find noble tasks to do , beautiful and gracious duties waiting along your path . The pain and suffering of the world never dies , and while it lives there will be work for such as you to do , and in the doing of it you will find comfort and strength and the highest joy of living . I believe in you . I believe you will make of your life a beautiful and worthy thing .
I give you Godspeed for the years to XXXXX .
Do began come doing longed meant missed read say speak