It is a pretty account of Mrs. Cameron going to meet the postman through the pouring rain to get news of her husband: ‘It was as if heaven’s blessing descended on me when I read of his well-being.’
She adds:
‘Last night I dreamt he had returned and was delighted to be at Freshwater and that you, dear Alfred, in the emotion of joy at seeing him, walked round him three times, and I said “Why don’t you then embrace each other?” And Charles answered, “I can’t trust myself at my age to give way to my emotion,” but when Mrs. Tennyson entered he kissed her hand.
‘Now I feel full of gratitude, and the soft sweet feeling of returning spring on the earth is scarcely softer than the sensation in my heart of returning peace.’
IV.
The Prince Consort came to see the Tennysons when they first arrived at Farringford, and found them in confusion, the departing occupant being still there with some of his furniture.
There is a letter from Mrs. Tennyson to Matilda Tennyson written in the spring of 1862 after the Prince’s death, in which we read:
‘We hear that the poor Queen is better, she begins to take interest in things out of doors, to ask about the birds that he loved.’
Then again: