of
course you will want to know just as much now....

My time at the Beeches was not very pleasant to me. The weather was
horrible, cold, wet, and dismal; the house is wretchedly uncomfortable;
and Mrs. Grote always keeps me in a rather nervous state of breathless
apprehension as to what she may say or do next. I cannot talk much,
either to her or Charles Greville; neither of them understands a word
that I say. Her utter _unusualness_ perplexes me, and his ingrain
worldliness provokes me; but I listened with great pleasure to some
political talk between Charles Greville, Mr. Grote, and the Italian
patriot, Prandi. You know that, fond as I am of talking, I like
listening better, when I can hear what I think worth listening to. I was
delighted with their clear, practical, comprehensive, and liberal views
of the whole state of Europe, especially Italy, so interesting in her
present half-roused attitude of returning national vitality. They talked
a great deal, too, upon the West India sugar question; and I listened
with interest to all they said, struck the whole time with their
entirely ignoring the deepest sources whence national troubles and their
remedies flow, of which the wisest working politicians and statesmen
take apparently (very foolishly) little heed; I suppose they do not
acknowledge them, which is why their government and statescraft is so
apt to be mere temporary empirical expediency.

I had a very full and lively audience at Cambridge, and remarked with
especial satisfaction a young man sitting in the stage box with one of
the sweetest countenances I ever saw. I sincerely hope, for his beauty's
sake, that he was amused. He reminded me of the line in King John,
describing the young gentlemen in the English army--the lads "with
ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens." They were very attentive,
and very enthusiastic, and I was very well pleased with them, and I hope
they were with me....

There is nothing in the supernatural part of "Jane Eyre" that disturbs
me at all; on the contrary, I believe in it. I mean, there is nothing in
my mode of thinking and feeling that denies the possibility of such a
circumstance as Jane Eyre hearing her distant lover call upon her name.
I have often thought that the power of intense love might very well work
just such a miracle as that. God bless you, dear. Kiss dearest Dorothy
for me, and believe me

Ever yours,