Mrs. Martineau sat with her back to the
only dim light there was, and I could receive no impression from her
face; but she seemed pleasant and friendly. Mrs. Martineau said she
wished very much that we would go to her party on the 19th, which was
their silver wedding day. She said we should meet Mrs. Gaskell, the
author of "Mary Barton," "Ruth," and "Cranford," and several other
friends. It is the greatest pity that we cannot go; but it would be
madness to think of going out at night in these solid fogs with my
cough. They live beyond Liverpool, in Prince's Park. Mrs. Martineau
showed herself perfectly well-bred by not being importunate. It was a
delightful call; and I feel as if I had friends indeed and in need
just from that one interview. Mr. Martineau said Una would be homesick
until she had some friends of her own age, and that he had a daughter
a little older, who might do for one of them. They wished to see Mr.
Hawthorne, and came pretty near it, for they could not have got out of
the lodge gate before he came home! Was not that a shame?
I must tell you that there is a splendid show which Mr. Jerdan wants
us to see at Lord Warremore de Tabley's; it is a vast salt mine of
twenty acres, cut into a symmetrical columned gallery! He says it
shall be lighted up, so that we shall walk in a diamond corridor. Mr.
Jerdan said that salt used to be the medium of traffic in those
districts; and I think Lord de Tabley [1] is a beauty for having his
mines cut in the form of art, instead of hewed and hacked as a Vandal
would have done.
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