[Manchester—Wednesday, 26 August 1868]
Wedy 27th [sic]. Our life is uneventful externally here! What a happy life is that, at least for a time. I am frequently reminded in my content at its slow movement of Shelley’s saying that he thought that was the way life should be divided into six months of solitude & six of society. If I were so ungrateful as to wish, I could wish for four more months of this but I know we are happier and better as it is—only the days fall away very fast just now. Reading Chaucers Romaunt of the Rose today and strolling about our pastures & beach.
Mr. Bartol told us that Father Taylor said one day of Mr. Emerson after he had left the room, “What a lovely child he is—give the Devil his rations and the tide of emigration would set that way & heaven be depeopled.”
Letter from Mary Dickens with her father’s gift to me of Tim’s first talk.