ABSTRACT
This chapter presents letters by Thorstein Veblen to Sarah Hardy. Most of the letters Veblen received from Sarah have disappeared, so one has to guess at their content. In her letters to her mother, Sarah only once or twice mentions Professor Veblen, but often refers to Professor Laughlin, whom she admired, and with who she was on friendly terms. Her long walks with Veblen were kept from her ultra-proper mother. Sarah did reply promptly to Veblen's previous letter, as is evident by what he writes in his next letter, a week and a half after his first. Veblen had once asked Miss Hardy for "a gentle hint" that she had had enough of his constant letters and attentions. He had already received one gentle hint in a previous letter—that she planned to stay away from Chicago for years. And the letter may indicate that she gave him a second hint, by lagging in correspondence, because he states in this letter.
