At last the carriage drove into a deep-graveled yard, and we alighted
at a porch covered with green ivy, and found ourselves once more at
home.
You may spare your anxieties about me, for I do assure you that if I
were an old S?vres china jar I could not have more careful handling
than I do. Everybody is considerate; a great deal to say when there
appears to be so much excitement. Everybody seems to understand how
good-for-nothing I am; and yet, with all this consideration, I have
been obliged to keep my room and bed for a good part of the time. Of
the multitudes who have called, I have seen scarcely any.
To-morrow evening is to be the great tea-party here. How in the world
I am ever to live through it I don't know.
The amount of letters we found waiting for us here in Edinburgh was,
if possible, more appalling than in Glasgow. Among those from persons
whom you would be interested in hearing of, I may mention a very kind
and beautiful one from the Duchess of Sutherland, and one also from
the Earl of Carlisle, both desiring to make appointments for meeting
us as soon as we come to London. Also a very kind and interesting note
from the Rev. Mr. Kingsley and lady. I look forward with a great deal
of interest to passing a little time with them in their rectory.
As to all engagements, I am in a state of happy acquiescence, having
resigned myself, as a very tame lion, into the hands of my keepers.
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