MS location unknown. Printed in Romanes, Appreciation, 191-2.
[To Ethel Romanes]
Will you allow one who is almost a stranger to you personally, to express my deep sympathy and sorrow when I saw the notice in the paper of the awful blow that has fallen on you?1 I know from Annie Moberly of your great kindness on my birthday last year, and that leads me to hope that you will not feel a few words from an old woman an intrusion; though pray do not try to answer them, as I shall hear of you from Annie. I have thought of you in my prayers, and may you and your children have full comfort and joy in communion alike with those gone before and with the Comforter and great Head of the Church.
A very dear friend of mine, Mrs. Gibbs, whose name you know in connection with Keble College, used to say that the losses of her husband and several of her children had made ‘Therefore with Angels and Archangels,’ etc., more to her than ever. If you do not know William Tupper’s sonnet, ‘Ye saints in Heaven, dear Jesu’s Body Glorious, From Abel to the babe baptized but now,’ ask Annie to show it to you.2 Mrs. Keble used to keep a copy in her pocket.
Yours very sincerely,
C. M. YONGE.