f
amusement, forget the sad cause of your absence.

Bulwer was here yesterday; and if I were to tell you how earnestly he
and all the other friends whom you don't know have looked forward to the
projected association with you, and in what a friendly spirit they all
express their disappointment, you would be quite moved by it, I think.
Pray don't give yourself the least uneasiness on account of the blank in
our arrangements. I did not write to you yesterday, in the hope that I
might be able to tell you to-day that I had replaced you, in however
poor a way. I cannot do that yet, but I am busily making out some means
of filling the parts before we rehearse to-morrow night, and I trust to
be able to do so in some out-of-the-way manner.

Mrs. Dickens and Bridget send you their kindest remembrances. They are
bitterly disappointed at not seeing you to-day, but we all hope for a
better time.

Dear Miss Boyle,
Faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.]

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _Saturday Evening, Nov. 23rd, 1850._

MY DEAR MRS. WATSON,

Being well home from Knebworth, where everything has gone off in a whirl
of triumph and fired the whole length and breadth of the county of
Hertfordshire, I write a short note to say that we are yours any time
after Twelfth-night, and that we look forward to seeing you with the
greatest pleasure. I should have made this reply to your last note
sooner, but that I have been waiting to send you "Copperfield" in a new
waistcoat. His tailor is so slow that it has not yet appeared; but when
the resplendent garment comes home it shall be forwarded.

I have not your note at hand, but I think you said "any time after
Christmas." At all events, and whatever you said, we will conclude a
treaty on any terms you may propose. And if it should include any of
Charley's holidays, perhaps you would allow us to put a brass collar
round his neck, and chain him up in the stable.

Kate and Georgina (who has covered herself with glory) join me in best
remembrances and regards to Watson and you and all the house. I have
stupendous proposals to make concerning Switzerland in the spring.

I promised Bulwer to make enquiry of you about "Miss Watson," whom he
once knew and greatly wished to hear of. He associated her (but was not
clear how) with Lady Palmer.

My d