disorder of the system, from which he appeared to
be suffering before he made this last professional effort. I _must_ see
him once more, and he has written to me to say that as soon as he knows
when we are coming to England, he will meet us there. He will, I am
pretty sure, bring my sister with him, and this is an additional reason
why I am very anxious to be in England this autumn.... I have no doubt
that they will both come to England in September, to meet me, and I
presume we should remain together until I am obliged to return to
America.

I have not expressed to you, my dearest Harriet, my delight at your
relief from immediate anxiety about Dorothy. Sorrow seems to me so
peculiarly severe in its administration--or discipline, should I call
it?--to your spirit, that I thank God that its heavy pressure is lifted
from your heart for the present. Dorothy is one of those with whom I
always feel sure that all is well, let their circumstances or situation
be what they will; but I rejoice that she is spared physical suffering,
and preserved to you, to whom she is so infinitely precious....

F. A. B.

LENOX, August 15th, 1840.
DEAREST HARRIET,

... You bid me tell you when I shall leave America to pay my promised
visit to my father. I have been thrown into a state of complete
uncertainty by receiving a letter from my brother John, which informs me
of my sister's engagement at Naples and Palermo, and possible further
engagements at Malta and _Constantinople_! Think of her going to sing to
the Turks!... I am at present alone here, and of course cannot myself
determine the question of my going alone all over the Continent to join
my father and Adelaide.... It is possible that I may have to renounce my
visit to Europe altogether for the present, and, but for my father, I
could do so without a moment's hesitation, but I dread postponing seeing
him again, and, while I do so, shall live in a perpetual apprehension
that I shall _hear_ of his death as I did of that of my poor mother. I
consider the visit I contemplated making him our probable last season of
reunion, and cannot banish the thought that if it is indefinitely
postponed I may perhaps never see him again....

An intense interest is felt by all good Democrats in the coming
election, which determines whether Mr. Van Buren is to retain the
Presidency or not; a