GE to Mrs. William Smith, London, 14 October 1876
Title
GE to Mrs. William Smith, London, 14 October 1876
Title
GE to Mrs. William Smith, London, 14 October 1876
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. William Smith
Date(s)
- 1876-10-14
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. William Smith, London, 14 October 1876
Text: Cross, III, 291-293.
I had felt it long before you let me have some news of you. How could you repeat deliberately that bad dream of your having made yourself "objectionable"? I will answer for it that you were never objectionable to any creature, except perhaps to your own self -- a too modest and shrinking self. I trusted in your understanding last spring that I was glad to hear from my friends without having to make the effort of answering, when answering was not demanded for practical purposes. My health was not good, and I was absorbed as to my working power, though not as to my interest and sympathy.
You have been in my mind of late, not only on your own account but in affectionate association with our dear Mrs Ruck, 547 whose acquaintance I owe to you. On my return from abroad I found among my heap of letters a delightful one from her, written, I think, at the end of June, as bright and cheering as the hills under the summer sky. And only a day or two after we saw that sad news in the [Times.] 548 I think of her beautiful, open face, with the marks of grief upon it. Why did you write me such a brief letter, telling me nothing about your own life? I am a poor correspondent, and have to answer many letters from people less interesting to me than you are. Will you not indulge me by writing more to me than you expect me to write to you? That would be generous.
We both came back the better for our three months' journeying, though I was so ill after we had got to the south that we thought of returning, and went northward in that expectation. But Ragatz set me up, so far as I expect to be set up, and we greatly enjoyed our fresh glimpses of Swiss scenery.
Mr Lewes is now printing his third volume of [Problems of Life and Mind,] and is, as usual, very happy over his work. He shares my interest in everything that relates to you; and be assured -- will you not? -- that such interest will always be warm in us. I shall not, while I live, cease to be yours affectionately.
Text: Cross, III, 291-293.
I had felt it long before you let me have some news of you. How could you repeat deliberately that bad dream of your having made yourself "objectionable"? I will answer for it that you were never objectionable to any creature, except perhaps to your own self -- a too modest and shrinking self. I trusted in your understanding last spring that I was glad to hear from my friends without having to make the effort of answering, when answering was not demanded for practical purposes. My health was not good, and I was absorbed as to my working power, though not as to my interest and sympathy.
You have been in my mind of late, not only on your own account but in affectionate association with our dear Mrs Ruck, 547 whose acquaintance I owe to you. On my return from abroad I found among my heap of letters a delightful one from her, written, I think, at the end of June, as bright and cheering as the hills under the summer sky. And only a day or two after we saw that sad news in the [Times.] 548 I think of her beautiful, open face, with the marks of grief upon it. Why did you write me such a brief letter, telling me nothing about your own life? I am a poor correspondent, and have to answer many letters from people less interesting to me than you are. Will you not indulge me by writing more to me than you expect me to write to you? That would be generous.
We both came back the better for our three months' journeying, though I was so ill after we had got to the south that we thought of returning, and went northward in that expectation. But Ragatz set me up, so far as I expect to be set up, and we greatly enjoyed our fresh glimpses of Swiss scenery.
Mr Lewes is now printing his third volume of [Problems of Life and Mind,] and is, as usual, very happy over his work. He shares my interest in everything that relates to you; and be assured -- will you not? -- that such interest will always be warm in us. I shall not, while I live, cease to be yours affectionately.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. William Smith, London, 14 October 1876, 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/93740