I have always wondered how much you liked Mrs. Fane. You mentioned her in one letter as liking her very much, and she is a good-natured little woman, but not one of us, is she, Pam? I think she must have felt Sir Henry’s death.[488] He was always very kind to her in his way, without putting her at her ease.
Our George has done very well in India, has he not? You know we always thought highly of him even in his comical dog days.... Now I think he has done enough, and might as well go home, but none of the people at home will hear of it, and this month’s despatches have made me desperate. Moreover, I cannot stay away another year from Mary and her girls, and fifty others. I do not like anybody here, and if we try to get up a shade more intimacy with any lady, then all the others are cross, and her husband or brother wants something, and that makes a story, and so on.
William Osborne is gone with the China expedition, which is a sad loss to poor Fanny. However, I believe that will be a very short business, and that he will soon be back again. The Chinese have already begun to say they hope there will be much talkee before fightee, which does not promise much fightee. William says that at Singapore they saw quantities of little dogs fattening regularly in coops for the table, and their captain’s steward was looking at them, which gave Lord Jocelyn and himself an alarm about their future dinners.
Your little picture is still such a pleasure to me. Mind you keep like it, that I may know you again. None of the children know me, which is shocking and foolish. Your most affectionate
E. E.
Lady Campbell to Miss Eden.
DUBLIN,
September 27, 1840.
Just so my darling. I am rather glad you wrote before you saw the Taylor I sent, for fear he should be a beast in spite of Edward’s good word. Emmy, this other year seems harder to swallow than all the rest. But I will not touch upon it; it is too raw. There has been a talk of our asking for something in India; I thought it just probable that we might pass each other at sea! However, we should have to leave so many children they said it would not pay, and I could have hugged them. One man I can scarce bear to look at who put it into Sir Guy’s head at first, and how much we were to lay by, and how charming the climate was, and how I should marry my daughters!
Yes, Sir Guy’s Fanny is married and very happy. Captain Harvey[489] is a very handsome, nice person; they have not much money at present, but that cannot be helped. Pam[490] has been with her for the last month at Carlisle, where Fanny is quartered. Pam was very ill with ague, so I sent her to the Napiers. She comes back to me next week. I long to show her to you—not for the beauty, for she is no beauty, tho’ nice-looking. But, Emmy, she is quite, quite one of us—I need not explain how pleasant, how good, how full of sense and fun. She is such a comfort to me.
The next, Georgina,[491] is very pretty and very dear, but not so gentle and patient as Pam.