However, Lord Clarendon has been extremely amiable about it, which he was sure to be, and Thérèse was so regularly and thoroughly in love that I think T. Lewis was quite right to make no objections on the ground of poverty. After twenty-one, young people may surely choose for themselves, whether they will be rich or poor.
Do you want a perfection of a little dog to égayer you? Lady Ellesmere knows my little Manilla silk dog, a small bone run through a large skein of white floss silk, full of wit and affection. I feel certain it would be a happiness to you and no trouble, except that you would have to coax it fourteen hours out of the twenty-four, and then strike for thirteen hours.
Love to Lady E. Ever your affectionate
E. Eden.
The Duke of Bedford was here yesterday. He is looking very thin but in good spirits, and happily satisfied that Lord John is the best Foreign Secretary we have ever had, and a juste milieu between Lord Palmerston’s extreme French, and Lord C.’s extreme Austrian views.
Lord Lansdowne to Miss Eden.
RICHMOND,
August 22 [1862].
MY DEAR MISS EDEN, Many thanks for your very kind letter. You will see from the date of this I have advanced a step, and tho’ not quite well yet, am at least convalescent, and just in a state fully to appreciate a pleasant letter or a pleasant book; the Semi-Detached, innocent as it is, did indeed amuse me greatly. I only wish all people could be made half as agreeable. You have been able to hurry on a catastrophe without the assistance of one villainous couple.
I am much disposed to be seduced by your view of Napoleon III.; no man ever committed such mistakes and knew so well how to get out of them. A friend of Mme. de Staël once said to me that she had an irresistible propensity to throw her friends into the river; but that it was relying upon her skill pour les repêcher, l’un après l’autre. This is somewhat the case with him. He would not run so voluntarily into blunders if he did not feel confident of extricating himself. Believe me, always, affectly yours,
LANSDOWNE.