force, and going to
finish my readings, please God, after Christmas. I am in the hope of
receiving your promised notes in due course, and continue in the
irreverent condition in which I last reported myself on the subject of
speech-making. Now that men not only make the nights of the session
hideous by what the Americans call "orating" in Parliament, but trouble
the peace of the vacation by saying over again what they said there
(with the addition of what they _didn't_ say there, and never will have
the courage to say there), I feel indeed that silence, like gold across
the Atlantic, is a rarity at a premium.

Faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Thursday, Oct. 7th, 1869._

MY DEAR KENT,

I felt that you would be deeply disappointed. I thought it better not to
make the first sign while you were depressed, but my mind has been
constantly with you. And not mine alone. You cannot think with what
affection and sympathy you have been made the subject of our family
dinner talk at Gad's Hill these last three days. Nothing could exceed
the interest of my daughters and my sister-in-law, or the earnestness of
their feeling about it. I have been really touched by its warm and
genuine expression.

Cheer up, my dear fellow; cheer up, for God's sake. That is, for the
sake of all that is good in you and around you.

Ever your affectionate Friend.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.]

GAD'S HILL, _Monday, Oct. 18th, 1869._

MY DEAREST MACREADY,

I duly received your letter nearly a fortnight ago, with the greatest
interest and pleasure. Above all things I am delighted with the prospect
of seeing you here next summer; a prospect which has been received with
nine times nine and one more by the whole house. You will hardly know
the place again, it is so changed. You are not expected to admire, but
there _is_ a conservatory building at this moment--be still, my soul!

This leaves me in the preliminary agonies of a new book, which I hope to
begin publishing (in twelve numbers, not twenty) next March. The coming
readings being all in London, and being, after the first fortnight, only
once a week, will divert my attention very little, I hope.

Harry has just gone up to Cambrid