JWC TO JOHN RUSKIN ; 6 July 1855; DOI: 10.1215/lt-18550706-JWC-JRU-01; CL 30: 6-7
JWC TO JOHN RUSKIN
Friday [6 or 13 July 1855]
Dear kind Mr Ruskin
IF “Virtue is ever its own reward”;1 (which “may be strongly doubted,” as we say in Edinr) decidedly the same cannot be said of discretion! How long I might have been discreet, “silent,” and all that sort of thing, without accomplishing any such good for myself, as in blurting out that foolish little thought; “I wish this had been the 14th”2—
Oh yes! wont we go with you again, and be glad TO! Mr C says “Well, my Dear, I desire nothing better for my share than to spend another afternoon with Ruskin out there,”3 and with me, the only possible objection I could find, were I to rummage all thro' my female mind, is that I in a manner begged an invitation. But really, I had no such thought at the moment, and you are a man, are you not who believes what one says, in as much as you mean what you say yourself—
Yours very sincerely /
Jane W Carlyle
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