1848 ENGAGEMENT 55 



managed to fall in love with one another in the most 

 absurd manner after seeing one another I will not tell 

 you how few times, lest you should laugh. Do you 

 remember how you used to talk to me about choosing a 

 wife ? Well, I think that my choice would justify even 

 your fastidiousness. ... I think you will understand 

 how happy her love ought to and does make me. I fear 

 that in this respect indeed the advantage is on my side, 

 for my present wandering life and uncertain position 

 must necessarily give her many an anxious thought. 

 Our future is indeed none of the clearest. Three years 

 at the very least must elapse before the Rattlesnake 

 returns to England, and then unless I can write myself 

 into my promotion or something else, we shall be just 

 where we were. Nevertheless I have the strongest per- 

 suasion that four years hence I shall be married and 

 settled in England. We shall see. 



I am getting on capitally at present. Habit, inclina- 

 tion, and now a sense of duty keep me at work, and the 

 nature of our cruice aifords me opportunities such as 

 none but a blind man would fail to make use of. I have 

 sent two or three papers home already to be published, 

 which I have great hopes will throw light upon some 

 hitherto obscure branches of natural history, and I have 

 just finished a more important one, which I intend to get 

 read at the Royal Society. The other day I submitted 

 it to William Macleay (the celebrated propounder of the 

 Quinary system), who has a beautiful place near Sydney, 

 and, I hear, " werry much approves what I have done." 

 All this goes to the comforting side of the question, and 

 gives me hope of being able to follow out my favourite 

 pursuits in course of time, without hindrance to what is 

 now the main object of my life. I tell Netty to look to 

 being a " Frau Professorin " one of these odd days, and 

 she has faith, as I believe she would have if I told her I 

 was going to be Prime Minister. 



We go to the northward again about the 23rd of this 



