Friday I hope to see Mrs. Downing, and if I hear of the great X—an unknown quantity to us—I will inform you.
XVII
N.Y., Monday, April 10, '54.
My dear John,—-I send you my humble duty. The season is over, and I return to an accumulated mass of work. I find nothing pleasanter in my winter's reminiscences than the Boston episode.
Give my kindest love to your wife, and my regards to Hurlbut, and believe me as always,
G.W.C.
XVIII
WEST NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., 11 April, 1883.
My dear John,——Your letter reached me safely, and I share your surprise and regret at what seems to me, so far as I can see, a wholly unnecessary act. I will speak of it in the Weekly at once because the Magazine is always so long after!
I saw some notice of Cranch's seventieth birthday. Good lack! how the years whiz! I did not hear from him, and I suppose it is not exactly the occasion upon which you ask your friends to make merry. Longfellow, I remember, wrote me when he was seventy that it was like turning the slate over and beginning upon the other side.