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our address - care of Munroe & Co Bankers
5 Rue de la Paix
Paris - May 11th / 62
My dear friend Emma
Every day since my arrival here & even before quitting London - my firm intention has been to sit down & send to you, cherie, my greeting. for ere this you must be a mama & let me hope, a happy one. That you cannot fail to be - if your own health has not suffered too severely. Is it not worth all the pain to hold in your arms the little one? Oh! I am so anxious to know what it is! but believe me you will love it just as well if it is a boy as though your wish for another [illegible]
to be born had been fulfilled. - I have thought of you every day for weeks past: I said to Mr Booth a dozen times a day - "I wonder if Emma's baby has yet come"! We are in the gayest capital of the world now: but I doubt very much if anything I could tell you regarding it would interest you or engage your thoughts for any moment away from home made so recently a new world to you. How I should like to have seen you the day after! I am writing now with my heart full of the hope that you came safely through. If so, you will be convalescent when this reaches you & as soon as you are able I hope to hear from your dear self, all about the hard & anxious time: from the
beginning to the end. I left [stifling?]old London with a mixed feeling of sorrow & gladness. My little villa just began to assume a more cheerful aspect. The gardens looked so inviting & I had become thoroughly initiated into the deep & uninteresting mystery of housekeeping: which was very Nora-like at first I assure you. Here, everything is 'toujours gai' you know: but I was so fearful of changing my darling baby's food: which in London was so excellent. But I lost no time here in procuring the very best milk & I am happy to say - she thrives just as well as in her little nursery at Stamford Villa. Mr Booth's parental affection increases rapidly to be best accounted for perhaps by the fact that the little pet never cries but is as smiling a baby as a
as a little bird the live long day. Pray, my darling friend, avoid all the old fashioned ideas of dosing for colic etc: which most nurses imagine the sole cause of a crying spell. 'Tis the continual giving of what is termed soothing syrup &c - that worries the child & brings on all sorts of disorders. Nature is the best nurse. Are you able to nurse yourself? if so you know that everything depends upon yourself. The change of air from London gave my Edwina a slight cold being the first she ever had. I was alarmed: but resisted my desire to give her a little something for it. The next day her little bowels were slightly disorderly for the first time also : but I waited to see if all would come right again & my patience was fully repaid : for by the evening her cold had disappeared & all. Nature requires no urging.
I had a note from your Grandmama the other day. She was not well enough to see me before I left. She spoke of you - I [experienced?] her hope that she was a Grandmother.
I wonder if your family will pass through Paris, this summer? As yet we have seen but little of this wonderful place. We don't like making a trip of pleasure & as we are likely to remain here two months at least we enjoy ourselves leisurely. The Theater of course will be attended to all in due time. We were fortunate enough to see LeMaitre, the actor in his great role of Don Ceasar: the poor old man has lost almost the fame he once possessed : but there remains still all the grace of action & the mast of his great originality, so that made of in
a great measure - for what younger men possess: voice & elasticity of action; [Riston?] I expect will be here & we await her appearance with anxiety. [Presently?] we expect a delightful day at Pere la Chaise. You know the great interest it possesses; so I will not offer any superfluous descriptives. - I find doing all that I could hope or wish for, in the shape of baby clothes - you will have really to look at & enjoy them - when I return for by that time you will have your darling in short clothes. They look so pretty when that time arrives. Lucy has quite neglected me of late : although I expect every day now a letter from her announcing to me your condition. I shall be annoyed most dreadfully if I
don't know soon. We are worse off here for news than in London. Mr Booth can only see the journals at his Bankers & after a long walk there - before breakfast - arrives to find every one taken off by anxious absentees like himself. We have not yet made up our minds when to return. At all events Edwin has no thought of acting in England again. Tragedy is dead there. Next season all the old standard theaters change hands for they are all losing money. Except Mr Sothern who is very successful in 'Lord [Dundreary?]' That speaks well for the taste of the legitimate. Mr Booth has no ambition to act for nothing - and to make any money now in England is out of the question.
The prejudice against Americans is very great at the present time. I have had one letter from dear Mrs [Felton?] of Cambridge, since her husband's death. She is resigned & more cheerful than we expected. I long to get home again. My only anxiety now is to secure here a good French nurse. Have you a competent one? 'Tis a difficult thing to find in America. Now, dear child I must close. Let me hear soon from you & pray be generous & tell me all: for I shall not rest satisfied 'til I hear from yourself. The photograph I enclose is very bad of me: but pretty good of the baby. I took off her little shoes - & you see how her feet look. Don't imagine I look as hideous as [illegible] in the picture. 'Tis only a mother's anxiety that overshadows my face. I shall sit here & send you a better one. My love to all & a thousand kisses to it affectionately
Your Friend Mary
[vertically on page 1]
I have blotted this and and am almost ashamed to send it. I hop you will excuse the untidy appearance.