But being frequently under the necessity of assisting one or other of my, as I thought, poor (but say extravagant) relations,I began to keep a spare box, by way of showing to what extent I have thus robbed myself. .... I am sorry to trouble you with such details, but I find myself so unwell at present that I cannot rest till I have cautioned you not to ask any question about me of any one, for nobody knows anything about me—my confidence in Mrs. Beckedorff, even, can only be partial, as we can only see each other so seldom.
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MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.
HANOVER, Sept. 24, 1838.
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I see by the postscripts you directed my nephew to add to your letter that you know exactly what will make his poor old aunt happy; and I must beg you to make my peace with my dear little William, for I fear the angry looks I gave him when seeing him climbing too high on an open window two stories above the pavement, can have left no favourable impression on his recollection. Unfortunately we could not converse together: he talked too soft and quick for me (I do not hear so well as formerly), and my mixture of German and English was not intelligible to him. . . . . Had the knitting with beads been known forty years sooner, it would have been one of the accomplishments with which I came, at the age of twenty-two, into England in 1772, for there was no kind of ornamental needlework, knotting, plaiting hair, stringing beads and bugles, &c., of which I did not make samples by way of mastering the art. But as it was my lot to be the Cinderella of the family (being the only girl) I could never find time for improving myself in many
