From Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield [15 August 1873]

Dearest Body

How v. unlucky poor R. is (however he can't be having typhoid fever) & I shall be glad to hear that u were really off today— The milk in London seems to be the suspected medium & not the water, so I will write & advise them to boil that. I trust poor P, is well by this time. It is nearly a fortnight— I know that big dog well— He made his appearance some days before we left home.

F. has escaped his sinking feelings these 2 mornings so now I expect he will keep comf. to the end—

It is v. nice having Horace here, he walks w. Bessy, besides rollicking w. W^m.  The kitten is a great resource & bears any amount of pulling about & buttoning up— We had a small party of the Yonges (she Lucy Acland) & a Miss Lawford who was nicish & played well. Mr Y is a ceaseless joker & B. was horrified at his vulgarity  His jokes were so idiotic & so utterly harmless that I was amused at him. We had a good dinner. Mrs Vertue is a changed woman since the departure of Liddell, so active & obliging & bringing in luncheon &c that Mark may have larks— Her improved health accounts for part of it but not all. F. & T. H. are keeping up a brisk correspondence about Coronilla & T. H. has discovered the reason of its bad conduct. Too long to tell. À propos I felt at first decidedly not at ease w. Ida, but she improved in cordiality tho' I don't think she arrives at being engaging. (I am so glad u have attacked mattresses & I will follow it up.)

We drove into town [symbol for yesterday) to see Mrs Smith & the Bank & the Regatta. It was pretty as the tide was up & many boats & yachts about; but nothing regattaish that I cd see— We went on the pier. I am got so full of Laufrey that I took to Thiers to accompany it; & now I have taken to Stanhope's Life of Pitt to confute Thiers, so I don't know where I shall stop. Effie's plan for Miss Schau was not to have her in the house & in that case I shd not be afraid of her influence.

Horace has had such a nice affect. letter from Rose. He is going to Barl the beginning of Sep. & then he will settle to his reading. L.H.P. has invited the Alfreds for a day. I am glad of it because of Snow's snub, which she administered in the very teeth of Hensleigh's wishes, and quite vexed him. Effie says that Snow now really distrusts her own judgment entirely, but cannot help acting on it sometimes.

The Tenby visit seems v. nice. What a funny woman At F. is to think that even a long visit from hope cd alter the being of a woman of 32 or so like Kitty.

I should quite believes that C. L. had tried his fate w. Miss V. I think it impossible u can have offended her tho' she is fat & single. I think Ef entirely happy but not absorbed in T. H. I quite agree w. u that I shd have been mortified, in his plan of absence for a fortnight. You give quite a poetical account of the dismalness of the house & place—

yours my dear E.D.—