MISS LAETITIA WHEELWRIGHT

'HAWORTH, _April_ 12_th_, 1852.

'DEAR LAETITIA,--Your last letter gave me much concern. I had hoped
you were long ere this restored to your usual health, and it both
pained and surprised me to hear that you still suffer so much from
debility. I cannot help thinking your constitution is naturally
sound and healthy. Can it be the air of London which disagrees with
you? For myself, I struggled through the winter and the early part
of spring often with great difficulty. My friend stayed with me a
few days in the early part of January--she could not be spared
longer. I was better during her visit, but had a relapse soon after
she left me, which reduced my strength very much. It cannot be
denied that the solitude of my position fearfully aggravated its
other evils. Some long, stormy days and nights there were when I
felt such a craving for support and companionship as I cannot
express. Sleepless, I lay awake night after night; weak and unable
to occupy myself, I sat in my chair day after day, the saddest
memories my only company. It was a time I shall never forget, but
God sent it and it must have been for the best.

'I am better now, and very grateful do I feel for the restoration of
tolerable health; but, as if there was always to be some affliction,
papa, who enjoyed wonderful health during the whole winter, is ailing
with his spring attack of bronchitis. I earnestly trust it may pass
over in the comparatively ameliorated form in which it has hitherto
shown itself.

'Let me not forget to answer your question about the cataract. Tell
your papa my father was seventy at the time he underwent an
operation; he was most reluctant to try the experiment--could not
believe that at his age and with his want of robust strength it would
succeed. I was obliged to be very decided in the matter and to act
entirely on my own responsibility. Nearly six years have now elapsed
since the cataract was extracted (it was not merely depressed). He
has never once, during that time, regretted the step, and a day
seldom passes that he does not express gratitude and pleasure at the
restoration of that inestimable privilege of vision whose loss he
once knew.

'I hope the next tidings you hear of your brother Charles will be