1851] Annies Death 137 



our lost treasure makes me feel painfully indifferent to the 

 other children, but I shall get right in my feelings to them 

 before long. You must remember that you are my prime 

 treasure (and always have been). My only hope of con- 

 solation is to have you safe home and weep together, 

 feel so full of fears about you. They are not reasonable 

 fears: but my power of hoping seems gone. I hope you 

 will let dearest Fanny or Catherine, if she comes, stay with 

 you till the end. I can't bear to think of you by yourself. 

 No doubt you will have sent Miss Thorley home to recovc r 

 her cheerfulness. I will write to her in a few days to fix her 

 time of returning. 



Your letter is just come, and I feel less miserable a good 

 deal in the hope of seeing you sooner than I expected, but 

 do not be in a hurry to set off. I am perfectly well. You 

 do give me the only comfort I can take, in thinking of her 

 happy, innocent life. She never concealed a thought, and 

 so affectionate and forgiving. What a blank it is. Don't 

 think of coming in one day. We shall be much less miserable 



together. 



Yours, my dearest. 



Poor Willy sends his love ; he takes it quietly and sweetly. 



In her diary on the 23rd April she wrote "12 o 'clock, ' : 

 which was the hour of Annie's death. 



It may almost be said that my mother never really re- 

 covered from this grief. She very rarely spoke of Annie, 

 but when she did the sense of loss was always there unhealed. 

 My father could not bear to reopen his sorrow, and he never, 

 to my knowledge, spoke of her. The following was written 

 by him a week after her death: " I write these few pages, as 

 I think in after-years, if we live, the impressions now put 

 down will recall more vividly her chief characteristics. From 

 whatever point I look back at her, the main feature in her 

 disposition which at once rises before me is her buoyant 

 joyousness, tempered by two other characteristics, namely, 

 her sensitiveness, which might easily have been overlooked 

 by a stranger, and her strong affection. Her joyousness and 

 animal spirits radiated from her whole countenance, and 

 rendered every movement elastic and full of life and vigour. 



