document,

TO Anna Cutts.

April 26, 1804.

Though few are the days passed since you left me, my dearest Anna, they have been spent in anxious impatience to hear from you. Your letter from Baltimore relieved my mind, and the one from Philadelphia this hour received gives me the greatest pleasure. To trace you and your dear husband in that regretted city, where we have spent our early years, to find that even there you can recollect with affection the solitary being you have left behind, reflects a ray of brightness on my sombre prospects. I will now give you a little sketch of our times here. I shut myself up from the time you entered the stage until Saturday, when we went to drive in the rain with Marshall Brent. All our acquaintance called in to see me on the different mornings. Those few whom I saw seemed to sympathize with me in your loss ! ! ! I drank tea with the Fingeys and Mrs. Forest, the amount of visits accomplished. A letter from the President announces the death of poor Maria, and the consequent misery it has occasioned them all. This is among the many proofs, my dear sister, of the uncertainty of life. A girl so young, so lovely! All the efforts of friends and doctors availed nothing. I am delighted with the kind attention you meet from our old acquaintance, and have no doubt but that you will have a grateful welcome in all the places you are destined to visit. Remember me to the McKeans, and to Sally say a great deal, for I feel a tenderness for her and her husband, independent of circumstances.

Your devoted sister, DOLLY .