“My poor boy was twenty-six,—the finest, boldest, and cleverest fellow you ever saw, and one of the handsomest.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Casa Capponi, Florence, Oct. 12,1863.
“I can never forget your kind and feeling note.* Broken and crushed as I am, I am not yet insensible to such kindness. If you only knew how we lived with our children, how much we mingled in their lives and they in ours! It was but the other day my poor boy came back from India after seven years’ absence, and the feeling that we were all together again had but just dawned on us.
*From Mr John Blackwood to Mr Charles Lever.
“Oct. 5,1868.
“I am truly distressed to hear of the sad affliction that
has come upon you in the death of your only son. God comfort
you, and grant that your poor wife may be supported under
this heavy blow. Do not disturb yourself about your tale. I
will make arrangements to suit a man suffering under sorrow
such as yours. We can either shorten the parts or suspend
publication at the end of the fourth part for a month if you
are not ready. All the opinions I hear of the first part are
highly favourable, and would, under other circumstances, be
highly gratifying to you. If I see any comments in the press
likely to interest you, I shall send them to you. All your
novels bespeak the writer a warm-hearted man, and I think
much of you in your affliction. I showed your affecting note
to my wife, who, although like myself personally a stranger
to you, joins me in warm sympathy.”
“My poor wife, too,—for two years a great sufferer from an internal inflammation,—was happier than I had seen her for many a day, and when I repined or complained about something, said to me, ‘Well, never grumble about such disasters; remember all that we have to be thankful for, and that death has never come amongst us hitherto.’ It was but one week after that we lost him.
“From my heart. I thank you for your sympathy, all the more, too, that you associated your wife in your sorrow for us.
“P.S.—It will be better for me, I believe, that I must work, and work hard; the tired head may help the heavy heart after all.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Capponi, Florence, Oct. 17, 1863.