[Manchester—Monday, 25 June 1877]
June 25. A warm day. Sat by my pleasant bed-room window and finished “Persephone” except two or three songs which are not yet to my mind and must wait for a clearer mood. In the afternoon went with Dear “J.” to Readville to pass the afternoon and evening with Mr. & Mrs. Pratt & Mrs Bell. Mary Lodge and Mr. Fay came to tea. Helen Bell sang us her dear old songs in the evening. The place is most tasteful and pretty and we enjoyed our visit thoroughly. How curious to watch the play of different minds. Dr. Hunt (who passed Sunday evening here with his sister and Miss Gale of Montreal by the way, who is a most cultivated and interesting deaf lady and who presented me with an exquisite brooch in black onyx with a head of Aristo) expressed the keenest astonishment and contempt for such persons as wasted time in Aesthetics!
We reached home in glorious moonlight about eleven o’clock. Mr. Fay came in town with us. He hardly knew where to go to pass the night and I would gladly have taken him in, but I did not like to ask him knowing J’s estimate of his character and what a real trouble it would be to find him frequenting our house.
