Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 2 May 1880
Title
Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 2 May 1880
Title
Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 2 May 1880
Sender
Edith Simcox
Recipient
U
Date(s)
- 1880-05-02
Place
London
Letter Content
Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 2 May 1880
MS: Bodleian. Published: McKenzie, p. 98.
Sunday 2 May 1880
May 2. Last Monday I left the Works Committee early and got to the Priory a quarter or half past five. Asked how she was and Brett said she had a very bad cold, would ask if she was well enough to see me. She was lying down and rather miserable with violent influenza cold. I had only been with her 2 or 3 minutes when Mr. Pigott was announced -- she said, to ask him to wait 5 minutes in the dining room, she had not seen me for so long, but he was such an old friend she did not like to refuse him though she wasn't fit to see any one. Before this she had taken away my breath when I spoke of her leaving London by saying she was going abroad for 2 or 3 months -- she would write to me about her plans -- she was not going to Witley before. I was rather stunned -- glad in a way, as of every sign that she has not done with life and only hurt in an unavoidable way by the feeling how far away all the determining conditions of her life are from me, and a rapid thought that it was an irksome task to her to feel bound to give so much account of her doings, because my love was covetous. I wrote a few lines that night to excuse my silence at the news.
MS: Bodleian. Published: McKenzie, p. 98.
Sunday 2 May 1880
May 2. Last Monday I left the Works Committee early and got to the Priory a quarter or half past five. Asked how she was and Brett said she had a very bad cold, would ask if she was well enough to see me. She was lying down and rather miserable with violent influenza cold. I had only been with her 2 or 3 minutes when Mr. Pigott was announced -- she said, to ask him to wait 5 minutes in the dining room, she had not seen me for so long, but he was such an old friend she did not like to refuse him though she wasn't fit to see any one. Before this she had taken away my breath when I spoke of her leaving London by saying she was going abroad for 2 or 3 months -- she would write to me about her plans -- she was not going to Witley before. I was rather stunned -- glad in a way, as of every sign that she has not done with life and only hurt in an unavoidable way by the feeling how far away all the determining conditions of her life are from me, and a rapid thought that it was an irksome task to her to feel bound to give so much account of her doings, because my love was covetous. I wrote a few lines that night to excuse my silence at the news.
Citation
Edith Simcox, Edith Simcox, Autobiography, 2 May 1880, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91783