From H. E. Litchfield to H. E. Wedgwood   5 and 6 April [1866]

Dearest Ti,

Your prilt letter greetit me on coming in from my drive & found me in considerably better spirits & temper & I must write to take out the taste of my little scrawly note wh. I told my Ma to forward to you, not that it was worth its 1^d. How good of you dear, dear, good people to come after us. I’m sure the 10^th. will find us ⁠⟨⁠her⁠⟩⁠e, whether at the Pension Italienne I dont know so please for the future address P. Restante so that in case of a change there may be no difficulty. It really seems too good to be true to think of your actually being here in so short a time. I shall try not to set my heart on it, ’cos I thk it may still not happen if it depends on toothach. Poor E. has been indulging in a little, but not bad enough for cigarettes. She is no g^t shakes yet but I do hope by the 10^th. we shall be able to cicerone you a little about the place. We shall be able to inform you at any rate at wh. shops there is the least chance of getting what you want. I’ve had such a tribute to my youth today: the shopman said of Elinor, “Est ce que c’est votre Maman”?

My spirits have been heightened by a ni: long walk I took this morning & where I have discovered that villanous looking men do not frequent the paths to nowhere in the hills & that all the workmen are very civil if you say “Bon jour mon sieur” that is the necessary thing to do everybody says or else they are insulted but they wont make the first advance. My walk wa⁠⟨⁠s⁠⟩⁠ down a water course lane as twere in Devonshire only bordered by fine old Olives   I’ve found more flowers today than I have yet, a handsome gladiolus & some very sweet orchids, serapias wh. sweetened my walk—I [illeg] orchids—& it was really hot & I thought of sunstrokes in the most refreshing way, looked out for shade & got none. It had been raining & all the myrtle lavender etc made such a ’licious smell I felt qui happ. & the views were lovely over the flat meadows & [illeg] on to the Estrelles, & I discovered a round & came home $\frac{3}{4}$ of an hour late to lunch but well pleased, a good walk clears away the blue better than most things. Miss Smith went out twice & that kept her in better spirits   She can’t abear being ill & one male attendant is not nearly enough to keep her amused. She will have long letters written to her schoolboys at Lea, long, dull, instructive letters wh. I am sure will only bore the little wretches, all about the hospitals of Lyons ⁠⟨⁠con⁠⟩⁠fluence of Rhone & Saone, quite the Edg⁠⟨⁠eworth⁠⟩⁠ian system of amusing children, & if you please it is most important that it should go by a certain post, when as you may conceive it is the sort of letter that may wait a fortnight, to tell the truth she did say something about her promise to them. I am perfectly ready to read to the utmost limit of my view & write all her home letters but I do feel it a little hard having my time taken up by writing stuff that will bore every one who comes near it. She is such a funny little woman, every now & then I like her extremely & then I feel “you funny tiresome little old woman. She gets such funny crochetts into her head. She & E. had a grand fight ’cos Elinor will eat some of a bag of dates we have, which aren’t quite ripe. Miss S. don’t like them, well & good. E. picks out all the ripe ones for Miss S. & we eat the inferior ones. Whereupon there is quite a serious commotion co⁠⟨⁠  ⁠⟩⁠ding up by assuring E. that she owes it to her family to take care of herself” etc etc, & now when we want a date, we must make signs & carefully eat them behind her back. There are many likenesses to Aunt Eliz in externals. They both of them if there are two doors, one right & one wrong, bolt into the wrong with extreme swiftness & decision, they both like walking about in the very funniest costume a british female ever wore since the world began. Oh! I must tell you how she was clothed when she went to pay a call upon the Woolfields yesterday, a p^r. of shoes, Eliz^an. make, purple flannel dressing gown, very long & very flimsy black cloak, very Elizabethan material, & make, one of our purple caplines & a pair of bright green spectacles—the tout ensemble was too awfully ridiculous but M^rs W. however did not turn her from her door but on the contrary gave her some negus & said I was very charming—very kind of her to say so for she did nothing but yawn in my face so that I shortened the usual 5 min. into 3. In the afternoon we went a little way along the inland road & to look at a Pension recommended us wh. we liked, but now, this most changeable of mortals, Miss S. seems to like this place very much & so I dunno what we shall do—after that we went down into the town & on the road to the Croisette i.e. past Hotel [Gounet] to the Garden of the Hesperides—we had lovely views all the way but the garden itself don’t equal its name—you go & buy oranges off a very handsome gardener in a blue blouse, rather dear, they are 2 sous, but good—there is a fresher taste I thk than english oranges & they pig boofully for dusty drives. Today (Friday morning) it rains slightly & I dont know what our plans will be. I must go watch orchids for my Pa & Miss S. must go & look at the Pension we have found. It is a french one & wd be very good for my soul for poor me finds her French rather rough   I try to speak too quick—get cuffled—use a wrong gender & get put out for the rest of my sentence. I tried to converse to the servant on the merits of two cheeses, but got stuck very soon. I shall be rather glad when the Jamaica correspondent gets less lengthy. It is a good labour to read aloud & has to encroach upon my morning wh. I always wish to give up to botany & letters. Mind you let me know the day you come here that I may meet you at the station & where do you think of going? I think, after mature consideration, it must be in the [Gounet] portion of the town. The more inland hotels are so full there is no getting into them & if you are to be down by the seashore you had better have the prettiest view—every way I fear you will be a long way from us. Don’t think me norty about Miss S. I like her very much in the main, only she aggravates sometimes—she is impractical