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and urging her to come down here Friday and stay over Sunday.

Friday Sept. 18" 1885. I finished a letter to Susan Hutchins which I commenced last night. Am going to remove the flower bed to the garden and Tom is preparing for it there. After dinner, Sara, Mary, my father and I drove out by the Roa-tina and out on the Flat-bush road crossing over to the Saugerties road and home through Kingston. It looked as though we might have a shower when we started but it was only cloudy and we had a lovely ride. These rides on pleasant days add much to ones enjoyment of the country. Mary read Horace Porters paper on Grant in the September Harper this evening. It is excellently written and is most interesting as showing many traits in his character not generally understood. The more I know of Grant the more I admire his simplicity of character. Porter describes him admirably as a man for great occasions who in ordinary times was only an ordinary man. I take great satisfaction in always having believed in him and reading over my diary I found I defended him vigorously at a dinner over in Brooklyn once where an editor of the Post spoke disparagingly of him. We had a letter from Mary Gifford this evening saying she could not come to visit us now. Her health seems very precarious. I am not happy and I am ashamed that I am not, for all my anxieties are imaginary. I know so well that it is all needless that I will struggle against it. 

Saturday 19" My finger which I cut slightly more than a week ago and which troubled me while I was out at Tom McEntees but which had apparently entirely healed awoke me in the night having grown angry and inflamed and I was obliged to put a wet compress upon it which eased the pain. I awoke with a head ache from indigestion and have felt melancholy all day, but I have been obliged to attend to many troublesome affairs regarding the cows and other irritating matters. Drove to Kingston with my father to see Mr. Hayes. Victor Quilliard came to see about the boundaries of Griffiths lot which are somewhat indefinite in the deed the map of the property having been changed in some respects. Speaking of the laying out of that part of the property beyond Chestnut St. Victor somewhat discouraged me. The grading of the streets according to the map will be very expensive and the chance of selling these seems very distant. Somehow the whole thing looked discouraging and as though in the end the expense of keeping up this big place would swamp all the property. I do wish we could sell this place for I foresee that the expense of keeping it and living here is more than we ought to try to keep up. I think if we could sell it at a low price it would be wise to do it. I feel better tonight and hope affairs will look brighter tomorrow. Mrs. Van Deusen took tea with us and told us of Grants engagement. Calvert came by the Powell. 

Sunday 20" A most brilliant autumn day, so cool within doors that we have had a fire in the parlor all day. I have been unhappy anxious and lonely. We shall soon be alone again. Mary is going home for the winter on Wednesday and I dread the silence which will fall upon this house again. Calvert, Girard and I took a walk 

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