“I have sent your letter and drawing off to Wem, Hazlitt’s father’s in Shropshire, where I conjecture Hazlitt is. He left town on Saturday afternoon without telling us where he was going. He seemed very impatient at not hearing from you. He was very ill, and I suppose is gone home to his father’s to be nursed.
“I find Hazlitt has mentioned to you the intention which we had of
asking you up to town, which we were bent on doing; but, having named it since
to your brother, the Doctor expressed a
strong desire that you should not come to town to be at any other house than
his own, for he said it would have a very strange appearance. His wife’s father is coming to be with them
till near the end of April, after which time he shall have full room for you.
And if you are to be married, he wishes that you should be married with all the
proper decorums from his house. Now, though we should be
most willing to run any hazards of disobliging him, if there were no other
means of your and Hazlitt’s meeting, yet, as he
seems so friendly to the match, it would not be worth while to alienate him
from you, and ourselves, too, for the slight accommodation which the difference
of a few weeks could make; provided always, and be it understood, that if you
and H. make up your minds to be married before the time in
which you can be at your brother’s, our house stands open, and most ready
at a moment’s notice to receive you. Only we would not quarrel
unnecessarily with your brother. Let there be a clear necessity shown, and we
will quarrel
| 158 | THE CARTOON. |
“We wish to hear from you that you do not take our seeming change of purpose in ill part, for it is but seeming on our part; for it was my brother’s suggestion, by him first mentioned to Hazlitt, and cordially approved by me. But your brother has set his face against it, and it is better to take him along with us in our plans, if he will good-naturedly go along with us, than not.
“The reason I have not written lately has been that I thought it better to leave you all to the workings of your own minds in this momentous affair, in which the inclinations of a bystander have a right to form a wish, but not to give a vote.
“Being, with the help of wide lines, at the end of my last page, I conclude, with our kind wishes and prayers for the best.
“His direction is (if he is there) at Wem, in Shropshire. I suppose, as letters must come to London first, you had better enclose them, while he is there, to my brother, in London.
