ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD DUFFERIN AND CLANDEBOYE, MY DEAR DUFFERIN, This Book was to have been dedicated to your Mother; and it is a melancholy pleasure to me to remember that she read and warmly praised some of it, during her last illness, while the story was as yet incomplete. Death has broken that unequalled companionship. The steady affection; the indulgent appreciation; the quick sympathy; the clear judgment; the womanly tenderness; the playful, kindly wit; the social charm ;-all those lovely and lovable qualities which surely never were before so perfectly combined with a rare and lofty intelligence, have vanished from amongst us, for ever. There remains, for you above all, but for me also, and in their measure and degree for all who ever lived in intimacy with her, a great sorrowful blank, which nothing can suffice to fill; let the remaining years of life bring what they may! I have seen more serious compositions than this present attempt of mine, inscribed, under such circumstances, to the memory' |