k wrong. He had suffered considerably for some weeks: but,
as he became weaker, and (I suppose) some narcotic Medicine--O blessed
Narcotic!--soothed his pains, he became dozily happy. The Day before he
died, he opened his Bed-Clothes, as if it might be his Carriage Door, and
said to his Servant 'Come--Come inside--I am going to meet them.'

Voila une petite Histoire. Et voila bien assez de mes Egoismes. Adieu,
Madame; dites-moi tout franchement votre opinion sur ce petit Livre; ah!
vous n'en pouvez parler autrement qu'avec toute franchise--et croyez moi,
tout aussi franchement aussi,

Votre ami devoue
E. F.G.

LVII.

WOODBRIDGE: _May_ 22, [1879.]

MY DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,

I must thank you for your letter; I was, beforehand, much of your
Opinion; and, unless I hear very different advice from the two others
whom I have consulted--Spedding, the All-wise--(I mean that), and Aldis
Wright, experienced in the Booksellers' world, I shall very gladly abide
by your counsel--and my own. You (I do believe) and a few friends who
already know Crabbe, will not be the worse for this 'Handybook' of one of
his most diffuse, but (to me) most agreeable, Books. That name
(Handybook), indeed, I had rather thought of calling the Book, rather
than 'Readings'--which suggests readings aloud, whether private or
public--neither of which I intended--simply, Readings to oneself. I, who
am a poor reader in any way, have found it all but impossible to read
Crabbe to anybody. So much for that--except that, the Portrait I had
prepared by way of frontispiece turns out to be an utter failure, and
that is another satisfactory reason for not publishing. For I
particularly wanted this Portrait, copied from a Picture by Pickersgill
which was painted in 1817, when these Tales were a-writing, to correct
the Phillips Portrait done in the same year, and showing Crabbe with his
company Look--not insincere at all--but not at all representing the
_writer_. When Tennyson saw Laurence's Copy of this Pickersgill--here,
at my house here--he said--'There I recognise the Man.'

If you were not the truly sincere woman you are, I should have thought
that you threw in those good words about my other little Works by way of
salve for your _dictum_ on this Crabbe. But I know it is not so. I
cannot think what 'rebuke' I gave you to 'smart under' as you say. {151a}

If you have never read Charles Tennyson (Turner's) Sonnets, I should like
to send them t