MY dear Sarah,—Do not be very angry that I have not written to you. I have promised your brother to be at your wedding, and that favor you must accept as an atonement for my offences—you have been in no want of correspondence lately, and I wished to leave you both to your own inventions.
The border you are working for me I prize at a very high
rate because I consider it as the last work you can do for me, the time so fast
approaching when you must no longer work for your friends. Yet my old fault of
giving away presents has not left me, and I am desirous of even giving away
this your last gift. I had intended to have given it away without your
Knowledge, but I have intrusted my secret to Hazlitt, and I suppose it will not remain a secret long, so I
condescend to consult you. It is to Miss
Hazlitt, to whose superior claim I wish to give up my right to
this precious worked border. Her brother William is her
great favorite, and she would be pleased to possess his bride’s last
work. Are you not to give the fellow-border to one sister-in-law, and therefore
has she not a just claim to it?—I never heard in the annals of weddings (since
the days of Nausicaa, and she only washed
her old gowns for that purpose) that the brides ever furnished the apparel of
their maids. Besides, I can be completely clad in your work without it, for the
spotted muslin will serve both for cap and hat (Nota bene, my hat is the same
as yours) and the gown you sprigged for me has never been made up, therefore I
can wear that—Or, if you like better, I will make up a new silk which Manning has sent me from China.
Manning would like to hear I wore it for the first
time at your wedding. It is a very pretty light colour, but there is an
objection (besides not being your work and that is a very serious objection)
and that is, Mrs. Hazlitt tells me that
all Winterslow would be in an uproar if the bridemaid was to be dressed in
anything but white, and although it is a very light colour I confess we
| 390 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | May |
You must send this same border in your own name to Miss Hazlitt, which will save me the disgrace of giving away your gift, and make it amount merely to a civil refusal.
I shall have no present to give you on your marriage, nor do I expect that I shall be rich enough to give anything to baby at the first christening, but at the second, or third child’s I hope to have a coral or so to spare out of my own earnings. Do not ask me to be Godmother, for I have an objection to that—but there is I believe, no serious duties attached to a bride’s maid, therefore I come with a willing mind, bringing nothing with me but many wishes, and not a few hopes, and a very little of fears of happy years to come.
What has Charles done that nobody invites him to the wedding?
