I like your fresh feminine enthusiasm, and always feel better
and happier under its influence. . . . I am glad that you were so much
pleased with Lothrop's letter of praise and thanksgiving; a poor
return at best for the happiness we had derived from reading Mr.
Hawthorne's exquisite romance. . . . I shall not now attempt to add any
poor words of mine to his expressive ones, except to assure you of my
deep sympathy for the infinite content and joy you must feel in this
new expression of your husband's genius. We were so much pleased to
find that he was willing to come to us in London, which we hardly
dared to hope for. . . . At least I can promise to attend to him as
little as possible. . . . We have taken for the season a small house
in Hertford Street, 31, which belongs to Lady Byron, who has fitted it
up for her grand-daughter, Lady Annabella King. . . . The eldest
brother, Lord Ockham, is a mechanic, and is now working in a
machine-shop in Blackwall Island, where he lives. This eccentric
course is rather, I fear, the development of a propensity for low
company and pursuits than from anything Peter the Greatish there is
about him. His father, who is the quintessence of aristocracy, has
cast him off. . . . Lothrop was very much gratified by all the fine
things you said about him, and so was I; for praise from you means
something and is worth having, because it comes from the heart. There
is another volume written, . . . but another must be written before
either is published.
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