GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 27 November 1873
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 27 November 1873
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 27 November 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1873-11-27
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 27 November 1873
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 16-18.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 27. 73.
My dear Elma
The wonderful packet came yesterday morning -- your sweet letter to me only last night. We are both delighting beforehand in Blanche's delight on her making acquaintance with the unique cat, and my feet have already been enjoying themselves in the unspeakable slipper. The cork and the wealth of soft lining make it quite unlike anything of the kind that I ever tried before, and I believe it will do for me instead of that more unhealthy appliance which you saw me using. Thanks, dear friend. I think you are the only person who has ever made gifts perfectly charming to me. You have a genius that way. As some people secrete extra bile or spiteful remarks, you secrete beautiful devices of presents. And your letters are all the dearer now that I have seen you and can imagine you saying the things you write.
I shall certainly think of you on Christmas Day, which to us also is the least desirable day of the year. About seven o'clock in the morning, before we get up, I am likely to be speaking of you, and some part of the day my feet will be in the scarlet slipper and the warmth will be continually transforming itself, in a strictly scientific manner, into grateful affection.
How could I fail to think of you much and often? The years are few in which I can still be with my loved ones, and the very perfection of my happiness sometimes presses upon me with an awful sense that it may end in their being taken away from me, instead of my being taken from them.
Give my love to Roland -- and Watch and Dora. 890 We have the likenesses of the whole family now, and I can make a very good picture of you in your daily life -- inaccurate in the still life most likely, but not in the three living figures.
We talk of you very often and you go along with all the sweet influences of our days. We should miss you sadly if a cruel sponge came and washed our possession of you away.
Yours maternally and gratefully
M. E. Lewes.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 16-18.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 27. 73.
My dear Elma
The wonderful packet came yesterday morning -- your sweet letter to me only last night. We are both delighting beforehand in Blanche's delight on her making acquaintance with the unique cat, and my feet have already been enjoying themselves in the unspeakable slipper. The cork and the wealth of soft lining make it quite unlike anything of the kind that I ever tried before, and I believe it will do for me instead of that more unhealthy appliance which you saw me using. Thanks, dear friend. I think you are the only person who has ever made gifts perfectly charming to me. You have a genius that way. As some people secrete extra bile or spiteful remarks, you secrete beautiful devices of presents. And your letters are all the dearer now that I have seen you and can imagine you saying the things you write.
I shall certainly think of you on Christmas Day, which to us also is the least desirable day of the year. About seven o'clock in the morning, before we get up, I am likely to be speaking of you, and some part of the day my feet will be in the scarlet slipper and the warmth will be continually transforming itself, in a strictly scientific manner, into grateful affection.
How could I fail to think of you much and often? The years are few in which I can still be with my loved ones, and the very perfection of my happiness sometimes presses upon me with an awful sense that it may end in their being taken away from me, instead of my being taken from them.
Give my love to Roland -- and Watch and Dora. 890 We have the likenesses of the whole family now, and I can make a very good picture of you in your daily life -- inaccurate in the still life most likely, but not in the three living figures.
We talk of you very often and you go along with all the sweet influences of our days. We should miss you sadly if a cruel sponge came and washed our possession of you away.
Yours maternally and gratefully
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 27 November 1873, 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/93406