[Boston—Monday, 7 October 1872]

Monday. To Milton—lunched with the Silsbees; were driven by 4 glorious horses in a beautiful dray by Colonel Russell to call at the Hunts. Found both of them at home & all the children. Returning, Mrs Macdonald told me of the straits of poverty to which they had been at times reduced—after the birth of their sixth daughter she was hardly able to stand as yet when she sent away her monthly nurse—paying this woman took all the money they had in the world except half a crown and they stood contemplating this with rueful eyes. Her husband had been engaged to lecture in London at Mrs Russell Gurney’s & was to receive £60 for the same, but at the moment of departure he was taken down by hemorrage [sic] of the lungs and was unable to stir. In this plight they looked at their half guinea & then he held her up at the window and tried to cheer her as best he might. At that moment the bell rang and a package was handed in by a lady’s maid who ran as fast as her feet could carry her down the street. They found a ten pound note enclosed—from whom they never could imagine. The very next day, a clerk called from London (they were in the country) and sent in a small tin box with a receipt which was to be signed. They opened the mysterious box not without trembling and found inside a pretty drawing of a child in a cradle with some verses and an inscription saying “Look within & without.” Thinking this very pretty & quite sufficient they signed the cheque & the clerk took the next train for London, but he had scarcely left when they re-examined the box and found beneath the drawing & the verses a shell tied with ribbon—this they pulled off & drew out a fifty pound note.

They have never been able to account for this letter.


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