From Emma Darwin to G. H. Darwin 10 February [1883]

My dear George

I was rejoiced to have yr letter of the 6^th from Pau. & to find you were really better. Pau sounds beautiful to look from; but I fancy it does not have the variety of any place with not such a wide plain. I returned from London on Monday & Hen. followed me on Tuesday— She is almost as well as usual— She found it so cold that we resolved to move into the dining room, & I am now sitting at my writing table, which I never used to be able to do in the other room without being chilled— It is certainly a more comf. room, & I can see thro' muslin blinds, who comes to the door. We have got a large linen drugget to cover M^rs Jebb's Persian carpet so that it won't get any harm— It feels the difference of being in doors & not out of doors— I am afraid B. will inevitably become conceited over his heraldry— The other day, walking w. Frank he saw a coat of arms in a window. He brought out his notebook to put it down & the shopman came out with due compliments on such a "very young gent" knowing about it—

A new game however has come in & displaced heraldry. He has a robbers cave behind the sofa & steals every thing he can lay hands on in the room— so that it causes a good deal of tidying afterwards. Bessy writes most cheerfully from Grasse (by the way Laura invited you there, one inducement being the absence of Hope) It seems a most cheerful place owing to Laura's acquaintance. M^r Croft makes himself very merry over M^rs Synnot. She is a bad walker & compared Bessy & herself to Pegasus & a cart horse. Mr C. invited B. to take a walk with him, but hopes she w^d walk all the morning first for fear she sh^d be too much for him. Miss Croft talked about G. Eliot to B. with great admiration & said they all liked M^r Lewes so much? She said they had always felt 2 of the greatest obligations to H. Spencer (I sent you on a letter from him) one was that he had introduced them to the Lewes's & the other that he had advised their mother, à propos to buttered toast, to let them have whatever they liked. The walks & drives at Grasse are endless & Laura's maid quite as m. of a Pegasus as Bessy. I am very glad you are able to do work—I can quite fancy that every thing comes under a different point of view when you have to teach it— Not knowing anything of the matter I sh^d think an inaugural lecture w^d be a good thing & make a splash—

This Cambridge Life suits Fr, his time is so entirely filled up & he has constant intercourse with men, which is invigorating, & I feel as if marriage was no longer an impossibility with him.

The Horaces had a pleasant dinner meeting Protheros & Hughes— Mrs H. seems v. nice a quiet modest looking little woman—

The next Les. you have please forward to Miss Darwin

Grand Hotel Grasse

Alpes Maritimes

yours my dear George | E. Darwin