
          friend could you have been doubtful or ignorant of my
 return? My visit to "Rokeby" was gratifying in all respects.
 I shall not find it hard to love my future daughter [Mary Alida Astor]. She is,
 I feel assured, a pious, & most gentle girl, & altho' nursed in the
 lap of luxury, since her birth, & with every appliance of
 boundless wealth, she is as artless & unpretending a girl as I
 ever knew. Very quiet & retiring, &, as I believe, of warm & kindly
 affections. My former impressions of Mrs. A. [Astor] are fully confirmed.
 She is a good, & very lady-like woman, & has brought up her
 children to be at once a credit & a joy to her. I am much
 pleased with the whole family. Mrs. A.'s family, living
 round about her, on the north river (Armstrongs & Livingstons)
 are highly respectable folks, of the old school. All received
 me with the utmost courtesy & kindness. A letter just
 received from my John-- & lying open before me-- says,
 "You have made the impression, I was sure you would
 do, dearest father-- & won the regard & affection of all".
 I trust I [do not] transcribe this in the mere insolence
 of vanity, [but] as you kindly anticipate, in your
 remark, that my visit to these new connections would
 be "enjoyed", I allow myself to believe that the confirmation
 of your (too partial) expectations, as contained in the above
 extract, will give you pleasure. My "little boy" tells me
 to meet him at dinner tomorrow, at Murray Street, as
 he expects to pass thro' N.Y. en route for Rokeby. I may
 therefore see him for about 2 or 3 hours. However, this
 is all right, & I do not begrudge dear Alida the preference
 to which she is now entitled. He has concluded his last
 half-yearly report (55 large pages! he says,) & met
 his directors 2 days since-- also, for the last time, I suppose. 
 He must have had plenty of writing of late, for during
 the week I spent at Rokeby, 4 (if not 5) letters arrived from
 him-- & he certainly receives fully as many-- so the news keeps 
 pretty well posted up!

        