Gad's Hill, Monday, Eighth July, 1861.
My dear Mrs. Gibson,
I want very affectionately and earnestly to congratulate you on your eldest daughter's approaching marriage. Up to the moment when Mary told me of it, I had foolishly thought of her always as the pretty little girl with the frank loving face whom I saw last on the sands at Broadstairs. I rubbed my eyes and woke at the words "going to be married," and found I had been walking in my sleep some years.
I want to thank you also for thinking of me on the occasion, but I feel that I am better away from it. I should really have a misgiving that I was a sort of shadow on a young marriage, and you will understand me when I say so, and no more.
But I shall be with you in the best part of myself, in the warmth of sympathy and friendship—and I send my love to the dear girl, and devoutly hope and believe that she will be happy. The face that I remember with perfect accuracy, and could draw here, if I could draw at all, was made to be happy and to make a husband so.
I wonder whether you ever travel by railroad in these times! I wish Mary could tempt you to come by any road to this little place.
With kind regard to Milner Gibson, believe me ever,
Affectionately and faithfully yours.
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent,
Tuesday, Seventeenth September, 1861.