GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 4 May 1859
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 4 May 1859
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 4 May 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve
Date(s)
- 1859-05-04
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 4 May 1859
Text: Cross, II, 104-105.
Your letter 128 came yesterday at tea-time, and made the evening happier than usual. We had thought of you not a little as we listened to the howling winds, especially as the terrible wrecks off the Irish coast had filled our imaginations disagreeably. Now I can make a charming picture of you all on the beach, except that I am obliged to fancy your face looking still too languid after all your exertion and sleeplessness. I remember the said face with peculiar vividness, which is very pleasant to me. "Rough" has been the daily companion of our walks, and wins on our affections, as other fellow mortals do, by a mixture of weaknesses and virtues -- the weaknesses consisting chiefly in a tendency to become invisible every ten minutes and in a forgetfulness of reproof, which, I fear, is the usual accompaniment of meekness under it. All this is good discipline for us selfish solitaries, who have been used to stroll along, thinking of nothing but ourselves.
We walked through your garden to-day, and I gathered a bit of your sweetbrier, of which I am at this moment enjoying the scent as it stands on my desk. I am enjoying, too, another sort of sweetness, which I also owe to you -- of that subtle, haunting kind which is most like the scent of my favourite plants -- the belief that you do really care for me across the seas there, and will associate me continually with your home. Faith is not easy to me, nevertheless I believe everything you say and write.
Write to me as often as you can -- that is, as often as you feel any prompting to do so. You were a dear presence to me, and will be a precious thought to me all through your absence.
Text: Cross, II, 104-105.
Your letter 128 came yesterday at tea-time, and made the evening happier than usual. We had thought of you not a little as we listened to the howling winds, especially as the terrible wrecks off the Irish coast had filled our imaginations disagreeably. Now I can make a charming picture of you all on the beach, except that I am obliged to fancy your face looking still too languid after all your exertion and sleeplessness. I remember the said face with peculiar vividness, which is very pleasant to me. "Rough" has been the daily companion of our walks, and wins on our affections, as other fellow mortals do, by a mixture of weaknesses and virtues -- the weaknesses consisting chiefly in a tendency to become invisible every ten minutes and in a forgetfulness of reproof, which, I fear, is the usual accompaniment of meekness under it. All this is good discipline for us selfish solitaries, who have been used to stroll along, thinking of nothing but ourselves.
We walked through your garden to-day, and I gathered a bit of your sweetbrier, of which I am at this moment enjoying the scent as it stands on my desk. I am enjoying, too, another sort of sweetness, which I also owe to you -- of that subtle, haunting kind which is most like the scent of my favourite plants -- the belief that you do really care for me across the seas there, and will associate me continually with your home. Faith is not easy to me, nevertheless I believe everything you say and write.
Write to me as often as you can -- that is, as often as you feel any prompting to do so. You were a dear presence to me, and will be a precious thought to me all through your absence.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Wandsworth, 4 May 1859, 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/93677