Mrs Ana Webb & Mrs Allen at two separate times & promised
to call upon them both which I shall do. Mrs Webb looked
very sober, Jane is to be confined in Maul(?). Mrs Allen
has lost every remnant of beauty. I have heard from
home this morning. All are well & they want Henry to
come down on Sunday. He is rather more comfortable I
believe than he has been. There has been great talk
about his going away & his mother & Maria paid everything
that was in their power, but he absolutely
declined. I do not think he would go unleʃs an angel
showed specially in form him that it would save his life.
Maria's new gown, a striped lavender looks very handsome.
She wore it here the other afternoon. Mary Mansfield is
engaged to a young man named Patterson. She is going to be
married & go to Paris for several (days), he being an agent for some
dry goods house. Richard Luckers's estate has been rendered
insolvent. Last night Elizabeth Peabody, (saw night before
last) had a party at which Dickens was fully expected.
It was one of her usual weekly conversations expanded
into a party. But after the company was expectant all
arrived, came a note from Boz, saying he was so worn
out & exhausted by the preceding day's dinner that he could
not come. The same misfortune befell Mrs Page where
he was invited to dine that day. Tomorrow he is going to
see the Manor St Chapel children, & as Henretta & I think
there is a hope he may address them, we shall go. The
Chapel is little, but we are good pushers.
I have made up my mind to send this by Hatch[1] & shall send with it, the patterns, drawings I mean, & your collar which I mean to catch Caroline long enough to buy for I cannot take these vast responsibilities. Mrs Loring(?) came to me the other night I asked if I could not come & stay a day or two with her before I left Town. I told her I should like to, so if she sends a definite
- ↑ McCracken Co, KY History Book, Turner Publishing Company, 1989, p. 147, ISBN 9780938021360, <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cpMzZe1INPMC>. (Wikisource contributor note)
