To H. A. Huxley   16 October [1872]¹

My dear M^rs. Huxley

Every man has a right to give a friend a marriage present; & going into a new house is nearly as serious & dangerous an affair as marriage.— Therefore I have a full right to enjoy the pleasure of making you a marriage present. I defy your husband, with all his sharpness, to pick a hole in this logic. But here comes my difficulty: I want to give something useful & not poetical, & I thought of asking to be allowed to furnish your dining room; but then I know not what furniture you already have. Now will you not allow me to treat you, as I have treated some of my near relations (& I am sure that I feel like a near relation to you all) & ask you to buy something with the enclosed for your self.—²

Do grant me this favour.— I was very sorry to hear so poor an account of your husband’s state, both for my own sake, & you must know what admiration & affection I feel for him, & for the sake of the whole world.— I hope that he may soon improve, & there is at least one comfort in indigestion, with all its miseries, that there is always a good chance of a prompt cure.—³

Pray believe me, my dear | M^rs Huxley.— | Yours affectionately | Charles Darwin