nd no zealous member of his party would leave the
country while that was undetermined. John writes me, too, that he
expects my father and sister both in London after Easter next year, and
I have no doubt it will be thought best that I should wait till then to
join them in England. However, all my plans must remain for the present
in utter uncertainty, and I shall surely not meet you and Emily at
Bannisters, which I could well have liked to do....

What lots of umbrellas you must wear out at Grasmere! [Miss S---- and
Miss W---- were passing the summer at the English lakes.] I am writing
pretty late at night, but if the Sedgwicks, whom you know, and those
who, through them, know you, were round me, I should have _showers_ of
love to send you from them: your rainy lake country suggested that
image, but that would be a _warm_ shower, which you don't get in
Westmoreland. I am growing very fat, but at the present there is no
fatty degeneracy of the heart, so that I still remain

Affectionately yours,
F. A. B.

LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS, August 28th, 1840.
MY DEAR LADY DACRE,

I have always considered your writing to me a very unmerited kindness
towards one who had so little claim on your time and attention; and I
need not tell you how much this feeling is increased by your present
state of mind, and the effort I am sure it must be to you to remember
one so far off, in the midst of your great sorrow [for the death of her
daughter, Mrs. Sullivan].... I shall come alone to England; and this is
the more dismal, that I have it in prospect to go down to Naples to join
my father and sister, and stay with them till her engagements there and
at Palermo are ended. This journey (once my vision by day and dream by
night) will lose much of its delight by being a solitary pilgrimage to
the long-desired Italy. I think of pressing one of my brothers into my
service as escort; or if they are not able to go with me, shall write
to my father to come to England, as he lately sent me word he would do,
at any time that I would meet him there--of course, to return
immediately with him to my sister. They will both, I believe, be in
England after Easter next year; and then I shall hope to be allowed to
see you, my dear Lady Dacre, and express to you how much I have
sympathized with you in all you have suffered.

I am not awa