You will exclaim 'Is this all?' If you were here you would think it
enough, but it-- The clock is striking one. Charles is to be at
home to lunch. He is going to buy the house and is to meet the
owner this afternoon, an old man who lives about ten minutes' walk
from us. Charles thinks the purchase will be a good investment and
that another house might be built on part of the garden.


BLACKDEEP, 15th January 1839.

I am not surprised you find London dull, but I grieve that it has
taken such an effect on you. I hoped that, as you are young, you
would get used to the bricks and mortar and the smoke.

Jim came in and I had to stop. The Lynn coach is set fast in the
snow near the turnpike at the top of our lane, and he is going to
help dig it out. I will take up my pen again. You are no worse off
than thousands of country girls who are obliged to live in streets
narrower than those in Homerton. I cannot help boding you are not
quite free with me. I do beseech you to hide nothing. There must
even now be something the matter beyond what I have heard. I cannot
say any more at present. My head is in a whirl. May be you will
have a child. That will make all the difference to you.


HOMERTON, 20th January 1839.

How shall I begin? I must tell the whole truth. Mother, mother, I
have made a great mistake, the one great mistake of life. I have
mistaken the man with whom I am to live. Charles and I were engaged