From H. E. Litchfield to Leonard Darwin 24 July 1874

Dear old Leo,

A twelfth of your absence has gone by & I think it is high time that I get a letter on the stocks. I meant to have one waiting for you but I expect I have just missed the last mail which will get in before you. but I guess you'll be too busy to have time for more than the flock of letters you will find already there. I wish we knew a few particulars abt you. It is so hard to write to you & not kno whether you are sea sick—whether your bed is bed eno'—whether you read etc etc. It would be far harder if we hadn't taken our river trip. one's imagination wants so many ladders, & I feel it quite a help to have seen the surroundings of your life.

I daren't tell you any home news because I'm sure you've had it all 2 or 3 times. At least I sh^dn't dare if I didn't know how a foreign land takes the staleness & twicetoldedness out of letters. I wonder if you feel like I do that there are no letters wh. come within 100 miles of Mother's, for bringing a real whiff of Down. Her letters seem like her very self—& I never can quite tell why—but a mere little scrap in wh. she has put down a few facts baldly & disjointedly—scrattled it off anyhow, always have a mysterious charm no others have. I suppose so sweet a soul must show itself—

I saw her yesterday—which as you no doubt know was Frank's wedding. It was the nicest wedding I ever was at so short & quiet. M^r Hawer's had strongly instructed his curate (not being able to come himself) as to the necessary brevity—& so he just walked in & began right off with the vows & only had two or three harmless prayers at the end.