My dear Anne I know I ought to have written to you weeks ago, but really I cannot tell how to write, and I do not think you feel as if you could either, I am afraid there will not be the same freedom about our letters till we have met once more and as it were come to a little more understanding of each other as is only done by speaking. I can hardly enter ... continue reading

My dear Anne How heavily and drearily I wished you a happy year, and how little we thought of the joy that was coming in this morning. It was so strange a contrast to have the London letters full of comfort and delight at the same time as Alethea’s sad one, I cannot say I for one moment thought that Jane would be other than an example to us all what ever might betide her, ... continue reading

My dear Anne It is a very long time since I have had such a nice long letter from you. I think the great Corfu news has given you a spur. It did take me very much by surprise though certainly if I had been asked to guess which of the Colbornes was going to be married, I should have said Jane, and you know she is at an age when two years of ... continue reading

My dear Anne It is enough to frighten one to see all one’s words taken so seriously, not that I did not really mean them, but perhaps I spoke more freely from not thinking you would attach so much weight to what so young and so flyaway a person might say. However it is quite right to feel that words have weight. I think I must begin from henceforth to assure you that you ... continue reading

My dear Anne Many thanks for the further particulars of Tern, I am glad they are allowed to be Arctic. Alethea’s children seem chequered in and out, brown and fair instead of being divided into boy and girl, how very amusing the others must be, I think Edmund must be remarkably clever to be doing lessons, and joining so much in the play of the others. Alethea Mackarness’s daughter came as unexpectedly as Frank ... continue reading