
          seem but little likely to get rid of it.


 Thus, my dear friend, I have filled my sheet
 with gossip, confined literally to myself, but in
 the assured persuasion that it will be of interest 
 to you, & the other dear Eyes that it will meet.
 Our kind & good friend [Wansey?] is still in London,
 & we often meet-- but he talks of returning
 to your side next May. I have drank 
 tea with Miss Tudor, once. She is not now
 in London, & writes me word that she has
 been very unwell. She said that she hoped
 to have heard from some of your family,
 as she wrote you immediately on her return
 to [crossed out: London] England. In a letter I have
 since received from her, she says-- "Mind
 you tell Dr. Torrey's family, I did not, do
 not, & never shall forget them"-- I have
 not a single word to say on the subject of
 botany & Natural History! I have repelled,
 as a matter of duty, all the advances of my
 worthy old friends, in their line-- & have refused
 every invitation to Royal & Lin. [Linnean] Societies!
 My business is arduous, & requires my thoughts,
 & I could neither do justice to myself, or my
 partners, if I allowed them to be engrossed, as
 they soon would be, with objects of far higher
 interest to me than money-getting. I do not,
 & never did love business-- for itself, & "my
 poverty & not my will consents" to carry it on. 
        