fifteen years ago, the loveliest of women, and her speech and
manners may still give you some report of the same. She has
always lived with good people, and in her position is a centre of
what is called good society, wherein her large heart makes a
certain glory and refinement. She is one of nature's ladies, and
when I hear her tell I know not what stories of her friends, or
her children, or her pensioners, I find a pathetic eloquence
which I know not where to match. But I suppose you shall never
hear it. Every American is a little displaced in London, and, no
doubt, her company has grown to her. Her husband is a banker
connected in business with your ---, and is a man of elegant
genius and tastes, and his house is a resort for fine people.
Thorwaldsen distinguished Mrs. --- in Rome, formerly, by his
attentions. Powers the sculptor made an admirable bust of her;
Clough and Thackeray will tell you of her. Jenny Lind, like the
rest, was captivated by her, and was married at her house. Is
not Henry James in London? he knows her well. If Tennyson comes
to London, whilst she is there, he should see her for his "Lays
of Good Women." Now please to read these things to the wise and
kind ears of Jane Carlyle, and ask her if I have done wrong in
giving my friend a letter to her? I could not ask more than that
each of those ladies might appear to the other what each has
appeared to me.

I saw Thackeray, in the winter, and he said he would come and see
me here, in April or May; but he is still, I believe, in the
South and West. Do not believe me for my reticency less hungry
for letters. I grieve at the want and loss, and am about writing
again, that I may hear from you.