My dear Lubbock

I cannot help writing, though it is so soon, to tell you how deeply I sympathise with you in your dreadful loss.¹ It is a terrible calamity. She used to show in every word & her expression how devotedly she loved you.— Her image, so bright & beautiful, now rises clearly before my eyes, as I saw her first years ago in the Crystal Palace.² My wife, as you will well believe, joins me in her deep sympathy for you & all your family.— Do not, of course, pain yourself by answering this note.

Yours affectionately | Charles Darwin