Volume 80: Lady Sarah Macarthur letters to Elizabeth Macarthur-Onslow, 1863-1890

so badly & was so disagreeable I said to her she must improve – on the 1st Octr she gave me notice to leave that day month – we have been for ever from home & she did not come much under my observation; on Friday we returned & on Saturday the keepers wife – in speaking of her to Watson as being disagreeable asked her if she did not see cause for a move – to make a long story short Watson told me their suspicion on Sunday, that day I cd not act – could to the extent of telling Edward – so did patience till Monday when I got up my erring damsel whose impudence was only to be equalled by her misconduct – She then after I asked various questions told me that she & Holmes were married & have been so since April – fib No 1 – for after no end of work he showed the certi ficate to some one. would not do so to us – & it was the 1st Sepr both behaved as ill as ill could be – and both were sent off on the Tuesday – She is a very bad Girl – her confinement must be in less than 2 months – Yet during summer – tho

she is not in London by way of admitting many visitors cousins tho' they be – Yet as I know an Aunt of hers who is a most highly respectable person & was maid for 14 years to my cousin – when I heard this youth was approved of by her & all – Mde Alice had him to see her – often – & allowed on a chance afternoon to walk with him as her acknowledged lover then she must have been 3 months towards a mother – Holmes had acted very very ill for he had the charge of our house when we were in Paris – and in short he has been a scamp – and so sly an one [original text crossed out- that com] till she called him her husband none in the family down stairs had the most remote suspicion; and he was by way of being so delegated at morning prayers – &c &c – in short a would be pious humbug – We already have had applications for the place from your old servt Richard who leaves Lady Gipp – soon; but I hope to get one in Scotland I having a horror of London Men Servts indeed of either men or women they are all bad – and I hope to get a household

all Scotch – and grant that all are alike which I do not believe they are – at any rate it will be some time before they are up to London tricks – Mary my housemaid leaves me to be married in Janry which I regret she is a nice modest well conducted girl not much of a servt but I would rather do a bit of housemaid on the sly myself – and have respectability of both good servts & good women are not to be united –

I heard from Emmeline Leslie the other day – I must write her she tells me she has been very unwell and ordered to Italy for 6 months – I thought her very ailing in Spring – What a pompous letter of nothing she writes she is a great soul but I never feel I make one atom of advance in acquaintance never to name freindship [friendship] – all our matrimonial projects for her must stand aside for a while I fear; I must suspect the absence of warmth on the part of the old Lover of bye gone days

has had some effect on her – but that may be a more sentimental than sensible idea

Since I began this epistle I have had Williams letter of Augt – Give him my love and best thanks for it – I shall write him by next mail – for I am both too busy and too frivolus [frivolous] to write him a sensible letter – so he must take this as an account of us both – and I cannot exaggerate the good account I can give of yr Uncle, he is so well & happy – we are for ever off for a visit of 2 days to see some or other freind [friend] – and the change of air and scene must suit him – for he is so perfectly well, but I am sorry to say terribly annoyed at James Bowman I fear his continuing the Agent is utterly impossible, indeed I think it is more than probable that he may put his threat into execution and write this mail and take it from him – Months before he got

the Agency he was told that one duty never to be omitted was – that by each mail a letter was to be written to say what he had done & what he intended to do – nothing of this has been done an Inventory of things left in the Cottage was to have been sent – he had been in it from the 1st Janry to the 22d Augt this never done – the Marseilles Mail of Augt has come in and yet no letter from him and here we are another month in ignorance of whether he has even tried to collect the rents – he has been every mail urged to write via Marseilles it is no saving of trouble to him writing via Southampton a lazy person here postpones till the latest all are alike to him – And the postage not being his – if a letter does not come via Marseilles we can only conclude it is not to come at all – it greives [grieves] us very for we had both hoped very truly that he might have been able to do