‘The only time I crossed, my Har was a baby in my arms whom I never for one instant put down. We crossed through a beautiful starlight night. I have never forgotten the rising of the morning star nor the utter silence, one seemed to lose the idea of time and to feel in a land that could have had no beginning and still less could have no end.’ As she finishes her letter the young moon is hanging over the vessel. ‘O what good it does to one’s soul to go forth. How it heals all the little frets and insect stings of life, to feel the pulse of the large world and to count all men as one’s brethren and to merge one’s individual self in the thoughts of the mighty whole!’ Here is another letter written a year later to Mrs. Tennyson: Easter, 1876. ‘MY OWN BELOVED AND SWEETEST FRIEND,—This day’s post brought me your letter, so strong in love, so feeble in calligraphy, in the wielding of that pen which is meant to say so much but which now trembles in the hand which used never to tire. Its very trembling is expressive of all that you have it in your heart to say. How glad I am that your sons, that Alfred’s sons, should be what they are! How truly does an answer seem to be given in them to your life of holy prayer! I do so devoutly wish that you could spend next winter here, the air is so uplifting and so life-giving. I think my illness on arrival was the result of all that I suffered mentally and bodily, the hurry of that decision, the worry of all minutiæ, the anguish of some partings, the solemnity of all, the yielding to my husband’s absorbing desire, and the yearning need to live with my absent children, all this is satisfied and beyond all this, beyond the inward content, there is certainly a strength given by the aspect of nature in this Island.’ After describing Ceylon and its beauties, the mother returns to the theme she loves best of all, that of her son Hardinge, who had just paid her a visit. ‘He wore for my sake his very brightest looks and you know there is no cheer like his. His spirits dance with intellectual freshness and buoyancy, all his talk is mirth and wide pleasantry and his voice is full of song.