AUTOBIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES. MRS. THOMAS CARLYLE TO MRS. BRAID. CHELSEA, May 22, 1863. MY OWN BETTY *:—I am wearying for some news of you. I never could lay that proverb "No news is good news" sufficiently to heart. Whenever I am feeling poorly myself (and I should be almost ashamed to say how often that is the case), I fall to fancying that you are perhaps ill, and nobody to tell me of it, and I so far away! It is so stupid of Ann and Grace, who take so much fatigue on themselves, in visiting about in their "district," and attending all sorts of meetings, that they don't take a walk out of their district now and then to see how you are going on, and tell me when they write. Some news of Betty would make a letter from them infinitely more gratifying than any thing they can say about Dr. Candlish, and this and the other preacher and prayer; and would certainly inspire me with more Christian * Betty was an old family servant. |