62 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, in 



poorer and many would be the better for every little she 

 had, I take it. I forgot till now that S. asked for a bit of 

 my paper, so God bless thee, my little darling as well as 



your Charles. 



J. S. 



Why shame on my wife, if she thinks that is the place 

 I asked her to write, in less than a full page it is impossible 

 to me to put together my ideas. I may take a kiss from 

 you and send a God bless him to your husband, and that 

 is all, but Jessie has given you with her writing much more 

 pleasure than I could have done. 



Charles Langton had found that he could not conscien- 

 tiously continue in the Church, and he and Charlotte came 

 to live at Maer. He was delightfully willing that Charlotte 

 should help Elizabeth in the care of her father and mother. 

 Jessie Sismondi wrote of him, "Mr. Langton is indeed a 

 jewel of a son-in-law. His constant attention to my own 

 Bessy was the prettiest thing I ever saw." Their only 

 child, Edmund, was born on November 22nd, 1841. 



Charlotte Langton to Emma Darwin, Fanny and Jessie 



Wedgwood. 



MAER, Tuesday [30 Nov. 1841], 



I think I may venture without any harm to indulge the 

 longing I have to tell my dearest Emma, Fanny and Jessie 

 how I thank them all and each from my heart for their 

 warm participation in my happiness and tender expression 

 of it in all their letters. It is more than I deserve when I 

 recollect how utterly unfeeling I have always been about 

 young babies, and felt inclined to think it hard on the 

 mothers that they should not be prettier and more attrac- 

 tive. . . . Charles's disappointment in its not being a girl 

 was completely swallowed up in other feelings, and I should 

 be most ungrateful if I had the smallest room left for a 

 regret about it. ... I have not had a drawback or an 

 anxiety about the baby or myself, with the exception of a 



