Volume Ii Part 68 (2/2)

Believe me, faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, W., _Tuesday, May 17th, 1870._

MY DEAR KENT,

Many, many thanks! It is only my neuralgic foot. It has given me such a sharp twist this time that I have not been able, in its extreme sensitiveness, to put any covering upon it except scalding fomentations.

Having viciously bubbled and blistered it in all directions, I hope it now begins to see the folly of its ways.

Affectionately ever.

P.S.--I hope the Sun s.h.i.+nes.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Bancroft.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT, _Thursday, May 31st, 1870._

MY DEAR MRS. BANCROFT,[36]

I am most heartily obliged to you for your kind note, which I received here only last night, having come here from town circuitously to get a little change of air on the road. My sense of your interest cannot be better proved than by my trying the remedy you recommend, and that I will do immediately. As I shall be in town on Thursday, my troubling you to order it would be quite unjustifiable. I will use your name in applying for it, and will report the result after a fair trial. Whether this remedy succeeds or fails as to the neuralgia, I shall always consider myself under an obligation to it for having indirectly procured me the great pleasure of receiving a communication from you; for I hope I may lay claim to being one of the most earnest and delighted of your many artistic admirers.

Believe me, faithfully yours.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] On the death of his second wife.

[33] Of the Readings. The intention was carried out. Mr. Kent's book, ”Charles d.i.c.kens as a Reader,” was published in 1872.

[34] No doubt Charles d.i.c.kens intended to add the Reading Books to the legacy of his MSS. to Mr. Forster. But he did not do so, therefore the ”Readings” are not a part of the ”Forster Collection” at the South Kensington Museum.

[35] A new collective edition of ”Kent's Poems,” dedicated to his cousin, Colonel Kent, of the 77th Regiment.

[36] Miss Marie Wilton.

TWO LAST LETTERS.

[Sidenote: Mr. William Charles Kent.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent.[37]

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