From Emma Darwin to H. E. Darwin [19 March 1870]

My dearest Body

I am so sorry for y^r ancles & feet. You must save them. Get a narrow bandage of v. soft calico about 2 inch wide & make Young shew you how to bandage round the instep & ancle giving a turn at the bend to make it fit exactly. Is there no nice donkey & boy to be had for a time till you get it a bit stout again. We have had soft weather at 50 & last night changing to 30. F. is wonderfully set up by London but so absorbed about work &c. & all sorts of things that I shall force him off somewhere before v. long. F. Galtons experiments about rabbits (viz injecting black rabbits blood into grey & vice versa) are failing which is a dreadful disap. to them both. F. Galton said he was quite sick with anxiety till the rabbits accouchements were over & now one naughty creature eat up her infants the other has perfectly common place ones. He wishes this expc^t to be kept quite secret as he means to go on & he thinks he shall be laughed at so don't mention.

Poor Bobby is better today & has ate a little. He looked so human lying under a coat w. his head on a pillow & one just perceived the coat move a little bit over his tail if you spoke to him. Standing told Parslow to put him in a warm bath to F's g^t disgust but I don't think he minded v. m. Polly is a g^t size but her spirits are m. better. She towzles her rope a little when Bessy looks on. I never saw such a methodical dog. She sits on the mat when we go to lunch—to wait for her dinner & on the rug in the chair by the stove when we go to dinner, & does not stir as F. & I go by, till Bessy comes by & then she comes in & waits on the rug for her biscuit, w. out going to look after in a greedy way—We shall save a puppy this time to amuse F. & me while we are all alone this summer, but she shall never have another if it can be helped. I have no doubt that the common grief at Woodfield will draw them all closer together it may do Carry permanent good in making her feel that people have sympathized w. her. There have been reports of a Capt. Something paying Jenny attention for more than a year but it is thought that the want of money interfers.

Poor Uncle Harry must feel that his 2 remaining sons are so little of men. As late I have not found it difficult to forgive Aunt J. (as I used to do long ago) as I perceive an undercurrent of affection & that the roughness arise from temper.

B. and I have had a pleasant tea at Ravens only I cut Miss Clough at first but made it up afterwards. I had quite forgotten I had even seen her, but B. assures me I had. We are reading Mildred, & F. is quite charmed w. it & thinks there never was such a heroine before. I find I like it m. this time & sympathize w. her. The first time I'd not get over a feeling of disgust at her marrying so degraded a man.

I had after all intended to go to S.ampton today about the P. F. but I am not brisk eno' & no doubt it will have me some agonies & I sh^d have had to reproach myself & not somebody else w. any failure of sucess. But it w^d have been an opp. of getting a first rate P. F. value 175 for 130. M^rs Henry Lubbock called yesterday for Good bye. She has been at High Elms & M^rs Turton too, while they were packing up; so Lady L is quite friendly in her acts. She kissed us & looked v. nice and asked to say Good bye to F. w. hurt and his conscience/ She says her bedroom in that N. E. wind was bitterly cold.

G. goes today to S.ampton ao I am sorry I do not manage my lark w. w^d been comf. and pleasant. M^rs Dulin has sent me a flaming paragraph about ""Mlle Favieré"" ""Her rendering of—was superb & met with an encore that was overwhelming"" At the Greenwich Lecture Hall & she has an engagement with w. a church choir but v. small pay. The younger sister has an engagement but no wages, & they have let their rooms so are pretty prosperous right now.

Tell Lena tha play was nought; all full of ""Prithee, & Gramercy"" & only one decent action. Both M^rs N's have written to announce the marriage & I have had to compose 2 pretty notes. Ella is going to write to you— How v. superior Hotel Vie must be in situation to y^r old Pension e.g. your being about to ge up the M^ts at once. Do look out for a pony or donkey or you may have to lie by entirely.