I am afraid that you have been thinking that we have forgotten your commission,[2] but it is not so.
I could not receive the young lady[3] myself, as we fill our house pretty well ourselves, but I have found a lady who will be very pleased to have her as a boarder. In fact there are two sisters, quite ladies, and they will take great care of your friend. They havep2have one gentleman staying with them, a very good young man, but they will take especial care of your friend The bedroom is rather small but I daresay that she will not mind that. And they ask 25s shillings[4] a week
Sibyl is returning from Bruges about the 9th or 10th You know I suppose that she is one of the lay Mistresses at St André in Bruges.[5] So if you think your friend would like to travel with Sibyl, she might call on Sibyl and arrange to cross the sea together
When you speak of thep3Normale School I suppose you mean, the Goverment School[6] in the Rue Ste Claire[7]
Let me have a line or two as soon as you know what your friend decides on
I think that Mr Weale will be at the Congress in Brussels[8] perhaps you may meet there?[9] Our old friend Jules Helbig is very ill or has been so, and is still very weak,[10] and he wants Mr Weale to pay him a visit, so I expect that he will go on to Liège. I have not been there for twelve years, but I am always promising to run over and see him and his sister.[11] He has been here three times, but we cannot persuade his sister to cross the sea.p4I hope dear Father that you are keeping well in spite of the advancing years. I am fairly well, and the rest of the family also, as far as I know. But when you have one boy in Western Australia, and another in some part of America one cannot be sure how they are. I am very anxious about Tom, as he left St Louis in April, and we don't know where he has gone to Bernard, your godson is in Western Australia, he did not get on in New Zealand. He is a good boy and writes very regularly.
I hope that Florence is well. I dont know her name in Religion.[12] I wonder whether we shall ever meet again.
Do not forget us in your prayers and be sure that I do not forget you.