Mrs. Alden found a letter among Peter's business papers. The letter was from Mario wishing Peter to get well, it also thanked Peter for paying for his schooling. The letter also spoke of Oliver and the interest the two showed in each other foreshadowed their future involvement in each other's lives. Mrs. Alden was no longer a match for Oliver. Any position she may take would be beaten down by the young puritan. She bounced from one automatically elicited thought to the next and Oliver understood the irrationality in his mother. This is the point where Oliver and his mother really break apart. "His allegiance in any case must be to his own conscience, to his own reason. On that basis he was not in the least afraid of the future-fool's paradise or virtuous hell, or whatever you might call it."