MY DEAREST THERESA, Between Lena,[576] and Lady Ribblesdale,[577] and Eddy and Theresa, and all the maids in the house, I am mistress of every detail of the wedding, and I am so very glad that it all went off so beautifully. Lena says it is the most interesting wedding she has been at; there was so much feeling and family affection floating about; and I hear dear Thérèse looked very pretty and very pale. But it is _you_, my old dear, that I have been thinking of all day--thinking so much that I am obliged to write to get the subject off my mind. I am so sorry for you, but only just at this moment. And, after all, the wedding is not so bad as the day of proposal to the mother. Then you had nothing to look to but her going away; and now your next prospect is her coming back; and in the meanwhile you have done all in your power to secure her happiness. [Illustration: The Hon. Emily Eden from a drawing by George Richmond, R.A. Emery Walker Ph. sc.] God bless you, dear. This does not require an answer, but I could not resist writing, and I thought you would like to know that I was as well as could be expected; after the fatigue of being at Mrs. Harcourt’s wedding this morning. I really feel as if I had been there. Your affectionate E. EDEN. _Miss Eden to Lady Theresa Lewis._ RICHMOND, _Monday evening_ [_October 1860_]. MY DEAREST THERESA, It is just bedtime, but I must write a line of warm congratulation on the advent of the grandchild and our dear Thérèse’s safety;[578] I missed the announcement in _The Times_ this morning, and it was not till the middle of the day that Lena, with a railroad sort of screech, made the discovery, and then with infinite presence of mind I said, “Then Theresa cannot be come to town and I shall hear from her this evening.” And so I did. What a discovery chloroform is. By the time we are all dead and buried, I am convinced some further discovery will be made by which people will come into the world and live through it and go out of it without the slightest pain. Don’t you think that if Thérèse continues to go on as well as she has begun you will be able to drive down here? Lady Clarendon sometime ago got an order for Lena to see Strawberry Hill, but as Lena only returned from Wells on Saturday I made no use of it till to-day, and then we found Lady Waldegrave was living there. However, an imposing groom of the chambers showed us the pictures, and Lena saw the rest of the home, while I was all the time longing to ask him if he knew anything about Thérèse, but felt too low in the scale of creation to propound such a question to him. My best love to her. Do come here. Your affectionate E. EDEN. _Miss Eden to Lady Charlotte Greville._ EDEN LODGE, KENSINGTON GORE, _October_ 24 [1863].