f she is not to
recover, it remains to pray for strength and patience.

'C. B.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_May_ 8_th_, 1849.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I hasten to acknowledge the two kind letters for which
I am indebted to you. That fine spring weather of which you speak
did not bring such happiness to us in its sunshine as I trust it did
to you and thousands besides--the change proved trying to my sister.
For a week or ten days I did not know what to think, she became so
weak, and suffered so much from increased pain in the side, and
aggravated cough. The last few days have been much colder, yet,
strange to say, during their continuance she has appeared rather to
revive than sink. She not unfrequently shows the very same symptoms
which were apparent in Emily only a few days before she died--fever
in the evenings, sleepless nights, and a sort of lethargy in the
morning hours; this creates acute anxiety--then comes an improvement,
which reassures. In about three weeks, should the weather be genial
and her strength continue at all equal to the journey, we hope to go
to Scarboro'. It is not without misgiving that I contemplate a
departure from home under such circumstances; but since she herself
earnestly wishes the experiment to be tried, I think it ought not to
be neglected. We are in God's hands, and must trust the results to
Him. An old school-fellow of mine, a tried and faithful friend, has
volunteered to accompany us. I shall have the satisfaction of
leaving papa to the attentions of two servants equally tried and
faithful. One of them is indeed now old and infirm, and unfit to
stir much from her chair by the kitchen fireside; but the other is
young and active, and even she has lived with us seven years. I have
reason, therefore, you see, to be thankful amidst sorrow, especially
as papa still possesses every faculty unimpaired, and though not
robust, has good general health--a sort of chronic cough is his sole
complaint.

'I hope Mr. Smith will not risk a cheap edition of _Jane Eyre_ yet,
he had better wait awhile--the public will be sick of the name of
that one book. I can make no promise as to when another will be
ready--neither my time