[No surviving envelope]
I should quite enjoy having a row with you, though I should prefer it to be on a subject on which I was in the wrong (this is my small typewriter, which constantly misses the spacing) so that I could eat humble pie afterwards, which I certainly cannot on this occasion – except for one thing. ToHale, Emilycorrespondence with TSE;w3being and not being loving by letter;i4 be loving in a letter is some solace for absence (quant vous n’etes pas avec moi, mon seul divertissement est de vous écrire – Mme de Sévigné to her daughter)1 but to be annoyed with the beloved by letter is to realise the emptiness of absence more acutely than ever. I wonder how the first day of Concord has gone, and how the correct but (according to my fleeting impression) fundamentally uncertain of herself Miss Tucker has behaved. Also, I await news of the lodger: who I hope will prove all that a lodger should be. I am glad that I know the house, though I am not sure which is your bedroom, or your private sittingroom, or whether you share with the lodger that bathroom which has several doors to it; and I should like to know whether you have to sit with the lodger, and talk to her, in the evenings, and generally how evenings in Concord are spent. I should not like to live in Concord: the contrast between the dignified past, and the rather suburban present is too sharp. IPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)gives to Books Across the Sea;h5 have written to Aunt Edith, toBooks Across the Sea;c1 thank her for the five pound note for Books Across the Sea andPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle);g2 the letter which Uncle John wrote for her. ThankEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)made fretful by Henry;d5 you for your writing to Theresa: IEliots, the Henrytheir dynamic;b8Eliot, Henry Ware, Jnr (TSE's brother)
1.Lettres de Madame de Sévigné de sa famille et ses amis précédés d’un notice par Charles Nodier (2 vols. 1836).
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.