[Manchester—Monday, 20 August 1866]
Monday. Clouds still hanging around. Jamie in town—a buzz of voices reading together upstairs while I sit down here since my early walk lapped in sweet fancies. How lovely such retirement is—yet Heaven help me that I may not in my weakness allow better things (that may be sometimes) to be crowded out, something must be crowded out, ah! may it never be the one thing needful. This subject is discussed admirably in Mrs Whitney’s story in the “Fancy Folks” of Leslie Goldthwaite. I long to write and tell her how good it is but I could hardly write to a hod-carrier with this pen and ink.
