From Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield 2 April 1880

Dearest H.

When 2 letters came in Mabel's writing one to Bessy I was pretty sure of the contents & I will send you mine as soon as At Eliz has seen it. It is all as nice & suitable as possible & I wonder it has not happened before— To be sure Herr F—may have been an obstacle. Now I feel convinced that Cecily's remaining objections to Rose's marriage will disappear as I fully believe it was the spoiling of Mabel's prospects she disliked so much— Here is a dismal cold rain—

Snow is gone for a few days to R—bourne in the middle of her visit w. At Eliz. likes all the better— She finds it rather fatiguing to keep sufficiently above trivialities & gossip with Snow & so a gap is all the better— Snow came up w her on Wed. p.m. to consult G. & F. about a passage of a review of A. Balfour's books w she is writing. They did not agree w. her & she said she shd alter it. We were very sorry about Sir John's failure yesterday & F. wrote him a note (a very pretty one he said) taking the view that he wd be a gt loss in the house, as attending to other things besides politics—

Anne Snow tells me that he is very unpopular in the village thought ""near""—the worst thing you can say of a land lord; but that wd not affect Maidstone  Old Mr Norman takes it very much to heart— I shd thought it likely that he mt have another seat offered him.

No fresh news of maids; now I must write to Bessy—who did not look very fit for her journey & found looking out & packing (so to speak) very hard work

yours my dear | E D.

Bernard said his lessons so well today, because he was busy teaching ""little Parslow"" the doll.