We are all extremely concerned and distressed to lose you. But we feel
that it cannot be otherwise, and we do not, in our own expectation of
amusement, forget the sad cause of your absence.
Bulwer was here yesterday; and if I were to tell you how earnestly he
and all the other friends whom you don't know have looked forward to the
projected association with you, and in what a friendly spirit they all
express their disappointment, you would be quite moved by it, I think.
Pray don't give yourself the least uneasiness on account of the blank in
our arrangements. I did not write to you yesterday, in the hope that I
might be able to tell you to-day that I had replaced you, in however
poor a way. I cannot do that yet, but I am busily making out some means
of filling the parts before we rehearse to-morrow night, and I trust to
be able to do so in some out-of-the-way manner.
Mrs. Dickens and Bridget send you their kindest remembrances. They are
bitterly disappointed at not seeing you to-day, but we all hope for a
better time.
Dear Miss Boyle,
Faithfully yours always.
[Sidenote: The Hon. Mrs. Watson.]