You do not ask me that 'boon'--why is that?--Besides, I have my own
_real_ boons to ask too, as you will inevitably find, and I shall
perhaps get heart by your example.
_E.B.B. to R.B._
[Post-mark, October 7, 1845.]
Ah but the good things do _not_ come together--for just as your letter
comes I am driven to asking you to leave Tuesday for Wednesday.
On Tuesday Mr. Kenyon is to be here or not to be here, he
says--there's a doubt; and you would rather go to a clear day. So if
you do not hear from me again I shall expect you on _Wednesday_ unless
I hear to the contrary from you:--and if anything happens to Wednesday
you shall hear. Mr. Kenyon is in town for only two days, or three. I
never could grumble against him, so good and kind as he is--but he may
not come after all to-morrow--so it is not grudging the obolus to
Belisarius, but the squandering of the last golden days at the bottom
of the purse.
Do I 'stand'--Do I walk? Yes--most uprightly. I 'walk upright every
day.' Do I go out? no, never. And I am not to be scolded for _that_,
because when you were looking at the sun to-day, I was marking the
east wind; and perhaps if I had breathed a breath of it ... farewell
Pisa. People who can walk don't always walk into the lion's den as a
consequence--do they? should they? Are you 'sure that they should?' I
write in great haste. So Wednesday then ... perhaps!
And yours every day.
You understand. Wednesday--if nothing to the contrary.
_R.B. to E.B.B._
12--Wednesday.
[Post-mark, October 8, 1845.]
Well, dearest, at all events I get up with the assurance I shall see
you, and go on till the fatal 11-1/4 p.m. believing in the same, and
_then_, if after all there _does_ come such a note as this with its
instructions, why, first, it _is_ such a note and such a gain, and
next it makes a great day out of to-morrow that was to have been so
little of a day, that is all. Only, only, I am suspicious, now, of a
real loss to me in the end; for, _putting_ off yesterday, I dared put
off (on your part) Friday to Saturday ... while _now_ ... what shall
be said to that?
Dear Mr. Kenyon to be the smiling inconscious obstacle to any pleasure
of mine, if it were merely pleasure!
But I want to catch our next post--to-morrow, then, excepting what is
to be excepted!