From Emma Darwin to G. H. Darwin 16 March [1884]

My dear George

I was becoming impatient for a letter & yours made me very happy this morning. It was too much to hope that Maud would not wish to go home to her family first. Shall we not have a glimpse of her here. We should be so glad to receive her & her Aunt & really get to know her, & it might be before Springfield & Mrs Jebb would be ready for her. I suppose M^r Taylor's house is your Naboth's vineyard—& it w^d be perfection. Ella M'Lennan is here—a very jolly, happy, chattering girl, devoted to music, so that she enjoyed Joachim's concert & the Oratorio, for which Bessy invited her to come. Kind Richard has been gallivanting her all about   Hen. & I were both done up by the oratorio & I believe my only rule will be to go nowhere. W^m who is so incautious let out something about you before Ella, wh. I am sure she took in. I suppose you w^d natually write to such an attached friend as M^rs M'Lennan as soon as you may tell people. She is m. better & takes to gardening. I don't know what the weather intends. Yesterday was like a warm summer's day, & we all felt dead w. the heat.

By the way W^m & Sara are on the look out for an escort for Margaret, so as to have her safe away before Theodora comes— Would your ladies allow her to join them if the time suits? She is perfectly well at sea & enjoys it, so that she would not want any care, only the feeling that she knew some one; to sit by at meals &c.

Fr & Ellen start off for a week at Paris on Tuesday, & we shall have B. He was intensely happy yesterday making a garden with your W^m & a rabble of little Skinners— W^m Feaver has been at his own home for a few days & now I shall begin French w. him again— M^r Pye has had to pull him up short for unpunctuality. He wept torrents so I hope he will mind. Horace is better & has been at work— He is rather scheming Easter at the water cure— The M. Fosters are going to Bordeaux & want him & Ida to come w. them but I don't think joining a party is wholesome— The weak member of it is always drawn on to do much, because it is so disagreeable to take care of ones self—

I have had a nice cordial letter from M^rs Jebb— (I will give your message to Frank & he will no doubt send you the information) I think your connection w. M^rs Jebb one of the great advantages of your marriage— She is a real friend to you; & to have a claim on one who is always kind & always in good spirits, is a real element of happiness in one's daily life. You see I consider you now able to bring down yr mind to the common affairs & visiting, of our life. Bessy was v. m. pleased w. yr little scrap. I shall keep yours to me as a pleasant word to look back upon in future.

Give my affectionate love to Maud or Maude w. is it   yours, my dear E Darwin