‘A thousand thanks, my dear Mr. Rogers, for your kind and friendly note. The sympathy of the good and wise (after those heavenly consolations which are mercifully accorded to our prayers) is the most efficacious, as it is the sweetest medicine of our sorrows. I know not why, but I did fancy I was almost forgotten by you, and it grieved me; for, alas! death and change have left me also almost a bankrupt.
‘This last, and I think heaviest of my many afflicting
visitations, I have felt, and long shall feel, very severely. Sickness and
sorrow have pursued me almost ever since we met, and but for the tender
unremitting cares of my darling inestimable child, and excellent friend, I
should probably not have lived to meet with you again. I was scarcely recovered
from an illness which confined me to my bed for three whole months, when this
last sad blow was struck. But it is no less irrational than blameable to
cherish an unavailing sorrow, and I have at length
| MRS. SIDDONS | 355 |
‘I generally take my airing at two, and cannot endure the chance of missing you again, therefore do not give yourself the trouble of calling, for I hope soon to be able to arrange something better than a morning call. There! I have lost the pleasure of seeing you again. How vexatious, but if you are good enough to call any day before two it shall not happen.’
