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in the profoundest grief at the loss of his wife, another old and dear friend of mine.
So you may be assured that I feel most sensibly your kind attention, and send you my heartfelt thanks for remembering me.
Always, dear Mrs. Stowe, faithfully yours, O. W. Holmes.
To this letter Mrs. Stowe replied as follows:--
Mandarin, February 23, 1876.
Dear doctor,--How kind it was of you to write me that very beautiful note!
and how I wish you were just where I am, to see the trees laden at the same time with golden oranges and white blossoms!
I should so like to cut off a golden cluster, leaves and all, for you. Well, Boston seems very far away and dreamy, like some previous state of existence, as I sit on the veranda and gaze on the receding shores of the St. John's, which at this point is five miles wide.
Dear doctor, how time slips by!
I remember when Sumner seemed to me a young man, and now he has gone.
And Wilson has gone, and Chase, whom I knew as a young man in society in Cincinnati, has gone, and Stanton has gone, and Seward has gone, and yet how lively the world races on!
A few air-bubbles of praise or lamentation, and away sails the great ship of life, no matter over whose grave!
Well, one cannot but feel it!
To me, also, a whole generation of friends has gone from the other side of the water since I was there and broke kindly bread with them.
The Duchess of Sutherland, the good old duke, Lansdowne, Ellesmere, Lady Byron, Lord and Lady 