‘My dear Sir,—I was concerned to hear, at Holland House yesterday, that you had left there in consequence of not feeling very well. I hope it was but a temporary ailing, and that this will find you as well as I wish you—in which case you will not have felt better in all your life, believe me.
‘I intended to have asked you yesterday to let me send you a copy of “Nickleby.” Being prevented, I send it you now without permission, begging you to receive with it, my dear Sir, the warm assurance of my esteem and admiration.
‘Did you ever “move”? We have taken a house near the Regent’s Park, intending to occupy it between this and Christmas, and the consequent trials have already begun. There is an old proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire. I don’t know how that may be, but I know that one is worse.
‘Always believe me, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,
