| 13 June. 1871.
My dear children,
After a 6 weeks’ illness I
am all right again, so far as this is possible under present circumstances.
Besides, the devil is let loose in the house which is whitewashing, oiling,
painting
(?)
, papering,
everything topsy-turvy. During the last days the noise and the continued
expulsion from one corner to another got the better of my nervous system, and I
have lived more at the general’s house than at ours.
I wish to have fuller notice
about
Jenny
’s health. I fear to have read
between the lines that she is not quite as she ought to be. Now, generally
speaking, after consultation with doctors of
approved
(?)
notorious
sagacity,
and in
possession of full information
, I think all of
you ought to leave the French for the Spanish side of the Pyrénées. The climate
is much better, the change you all stand in need of much more marked. As to
Toole
, in particular, his health will
deteriorate and may even incur great danger, if he any longer hesitates to
follow the advice of medical men who know everything about his constitution and
have besides consulted his former doctors at Bordeaux etc. Hence, I expect that
you will not care for a little trouble,
and
resort to
a more healthy place, and soon send me your new address whither I would send you
my new “address”.
Here in London life is just
now dull enough. The cousins from the country are thronging its streets. You
recognize them at once
at
by
their bewildered airs, their astonishment at everything they see and
the
their
feverish anxiety at the convolute of horses, cabs, omnibusses, people,
babies, and dogs.
Mamma
and Madame
Lormier
—as I hear—are fighting hard battles about politics. I do
not now whether they have already come to blows, or whether they confine
themselves to hard words, which will break no bones.
I have got from St. Petersburgh very valuable books
and very friendly letters in which all sorts of advances are made to
me
.
Lawroff
(not Anoroff) is a good fellow enough, not at all
without capacity, but he has spoiled his brain, and lost his time, by reading
throughout the last 20 years mainly the German literature (philosophical etc) of
that period, the lousiest sort of literature in existence. Being German, he
seems to have fancied, it must needs be “scientific”.
Mrs.
Vivanti
has come it out strongly, it seems.
I have not seen her, but I remark, that now she is spoken of in terms of praise,
perhaps a little
too
(?)
exaggerated, but in the family Cutts there runs, as
you know, a vein of extravagance.
Jung
’s
sister-in-law
has been buried the day before yesterday. Poor girl! She died in a hospital.
The little
“master”
is excellent in everything essential. So you may bear with his
little
weaknesses, his loquacity, his
self-complacency,
and the rehearsal of the “happy speeches” he made here and there.
The German
„Knoten”—patriots, of course—have celebrated in Bolleter’s Gardens the
“glorious” upshot of the Borusso – French war by a “Friedensfest” in which, more
teutonico, they have not failed “sich blutig zu keilen”.
Kern
,
having first found a school master’s place, has now, by the general’s mediation,
got a good place as engineer in the North of England.
Dr.
Matheson
sends his best compliments to
Jenny
and
Tussy
.
And now farewell, my dear
children
Old Nick.