My dear Sarah

It was very good of you to write, & your note has given me much pleasure.¹ It is not too common to find anyone in this world as true as steel. Your postscript is your own dear old self.—²

Immediately you left (Queen Anne St. Emma & I said to one another we must try when the weather gets a little better, whether she will face the dullness of Down & pay us a little visit.³ So that in the early spring you will have to make up your mind.

I had hoped to call & see whether M^rs. Biddulph would admit me, & had got her address, but a Russian naturalist came to luncheon & dinned me half to death & then an American naturalist, & I was half dead.⁴ But next time that I am in London I will try. I think that there must be some M^rs Biddulph living in Leamington, for I was told so positively that our M^rs Biddulph lived there, that I have thought of enquiring. In former years I was, also, rarely fit to see anybody.⁵

Let me call you | my dear old friend | Yours affectionately | Charles Darwin

Caroline is a little better & came down to dinner the first time for three months. She sends you her very kind love.⁶