GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 7 February 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 7 February 1880
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 7 February 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1880-02-07
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 7 February 1880
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 142-144.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
February 7. 80.
Dearest Elma
Roland came the other day, when unfortunately I had not returned from my drive. However Brett says he promised to come again and I hope it will be after 4.30, which is the beginning of my time for receiving visitors. He left me the beautiful letter-weight, which with all my gratitude to you for your sweet lovingkindness is rather a weight on my heart, because your affection is more than my share without any material signs of it -- and you have so many creatures who draw at your heart-and purse-strings.
I am greatly comforted on your behalf by what you tell me about Roland, and I let myself hope that your new ease of mind will be good for you medicinally, since the wise doctors (if there are any such in the matter of curatives) say that rheumatic gout is highly dependent on the presence or absence of anxiety. His sweet face and manners obliged me to believe that there could be no want of tenderness -- that the fountain was there, whatever causes might hem it in for a while.
For two things I thank you as an exceptionally considerate friend -- for fencing me off from people who "want to be introduced," and for saying that I need not answer your letters. It would have been a denial of myself not to answer this last, but I will trust to your general understanding that I desire to know about you and to hear from you though I do not say so by letter. For as I have no one now to write business letters and notes of politesse, I find my time much drawn upon by these details of social duty, at which I grumble the more, perhaps, because I am not easy unless they are immediately fulfilled.
I shall hear from Roland all about your health and whether you think it wise to stay in that dubiously sanitary Florence. I hope he will tell me that you have been having sunshine, while we here have been having Egyptian darkness -- a general gloom which seems to belong to Irish want and the Afghan war and the increase of European armaments. The air seems to be in mourning.
But I have kept very well all through the dismal weather, and have had no worse ailment than an occasional congestion of liver. One feels a little ashamed of being free from pain when one is doing nothing for those who have to bear it. But it is good to know that there is some ease in this hard world.
Please ask Mrs. Menzies to accept my love and believe me, dear,
Your faithfully affectionate
M. E. L.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 142-144.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
February 7. 80.
Dearest Elma
Roland came the other day, when unfortunately I had not returned from my drive. However Brett says he promised to come again and I hope it will be after 4.30, which is the beginning of my time for receiving visitors. He left me the beautiful letter-weight, which with all my gratitude to you for your sweet lovingkindness is rather a weight on my heart, because your affection is more than my share without any material signs of it -- and you have so many creatures who draw at your heart-and purse-strings.
I am greatly comforted on your behalf by what you tell me about Roland, and I let myself hope that your new ease of mind will be good for you medicinally, since the wise doctors (if there are any such in the matter of curatives) say that rheumatic gout is highly dependent on the presence or absence of anxiety. His sweet face and manners obliged me to believe that there could be no want of tenderness -- that the fountain was there, whatever causes might hem it in for a while.
For two things I thank you as an exceptionally considerate friend -- for fencing me off from people who "want to be introduced," and for saying that I need not answer your letters. It would have been a denial of myself not to answer this last, but I will trust to your general understanding that I desire to know about you and to hear from you though I do not say so by letter. For as I have no one now to write business letters and notes of politesse, I find my time much drawn upon by these details of social duty, at which I grumble the more, perhaps, because I am not easy unless they are immediately fulfilled.
I shall hear from Roland all about your health and whether you think it wise to stay in that dubiously sanitary Florence. I hope he will tell me that you have been having sunshine, while we here have been having Egyptian darkness -- a general gloom which seems to belong to Irish want and the Afghan war and the increase of European armaments. The air seems to be in mourning.
But I have kept very well all through the dismal weather, and have had no worse ailment than an occasional congestion of liver. One feels a little ashamed of being free from pain when one is doing nothing for those who have to bear it. But it is good to know that there is some ease in this hard world.
Please ask Mrs. Menzies to accept my love and believe me, dear,
Your faithfully affectionate
M. E. L.
Signature
M. E. L.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 7 February 1880, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/93418