Letter from Mary Elizabeth Garrett to M. Carey Thomas, March 17, 1891

Dearest Minnie, Sunday I couldnGÇÖt write, and yesterday my plans were entirely upset and I much discomposed [sic] by a violent and prolonged attack of colic. My plan was to spend the afternoon and if I got too tired the evening in writing to you, but I had caught cold apparently and by the time some of my GÇ£choresGÇ¥ were done, including the M.S. letter to you, I was doubled up and had to surrender. Now I have just finished my breakfast and am established in bed. My dear, I did not mean you to take what I said about the letter so much to heart. I repented having said as much as I did almost as soon as it was off, but it came at a very bad moment, and did make me feel very badly. Of course I did not for a moment suppose you meant to be curt, but I did think you were irritated (very naturally, I thought also as I said), and I minded its coming through the medium of the secretary and only sent it back to you to show you why I minded it. I did not dwell on it and wonGÇÖt you please dismiss it if you havenGÇÖt already done so. I do not think there is any danger of my not realizing that GÇ£anything is further from your wish than to offend meGÇ¥. You have been and are kindness and unselfishness itself to me and one of the reasons why I cannot feel the touch of even the tips of the [illegible] of our [illegible] - emphatically [illegible] is that I have been adding so much to your already too heavy burden. I am so sorry you are not going to have the rest of going abroad this summer, for the year has been a hard one, and you can not dismiss things when you are within reach in the same way. Then, besides the college, and Frank and hell, Bessie will be a complication and not I am afraid give a great deal of comfort or pleasure as compensation, and you will have the bother of looking after the things that are to be done at the school house, and then the Medical School Fund I feel sure will drag its slow length along. What a note from Mrs. Bartlett, by the way! I was disgusted with it, with is easy recommendations of continued work to other people, when she herself has done literally not a stroke. This reminds me of the fact that you have not answered my question about the building of that you suggested to her, i.e. the $50,000 program as against the $100-150,000 talked of some time ago? Neither have you told me who was put on the Hospital Board? I judge that Mr. Gilman is trying to gain Mr. SlaterGÇÖs interest in the University in a larger way than the $2000 for books. Do you hear anything of this or any other possible geese with golden eggs? You seem to have made a complete conquest of Mr. Furness. That of Mrs. Wister is old of course. Mamie is certainly right, people do write and talk to you in a very - what shall I say that you wonGÇÖt dislike - strain, but while I donGÇÖt always like the gush, it is very pleasant to have people, more people, that is like you so quickly. The last note from Mr. Childs certainly did not sound as if you had succeeded in suppressing him. Perhaps the building will come still! Mr. du Chaillu, Mary wrote me they were expecting a visit from, so I shall [illegible] him. It would amuse me to meet him again. The tenement-house book and the meeting A. Mary G. RobinsonGÇÖs [illegible] came day before yesterday and the LeapGÇÖs and LangGÇÖs and Debbi Homers too, but I have not yet begun on any of them. I am still deep in any of them. I am still deep in GÇ£WomanGÇÖs Work in AmericaGÇ¥ of which Dr. Jacobi sent me a copy of which you have of course seen. Some of it seems to me very well done, while there are a good many faults of taste, and many instances of missing relative values. On the whole it is much more [illegible] going than the Natural WomenGÇÖs Congresses. Should you not have thought that Christine Franklin would have tried to get what facts she gave about the Bryn Mawr School accurate when she could so readily have done it? Her closing paragraph shows that she estimates its value rightly. Who is Mary G. Eastinian who writes in Ed. in the Eastern States? Miss Wilkurt stories I have been re-reading with as much pleasure as they gave me when Mr. Child introduced me to them last year. Do you not think some of them very charming with the delicate charm and grace some of Francesca, but without the affectation of simplicity and the studied effects that interfere with oneGÇÖs enjoyment of her sometimes. I can no longer read at meal times, as Mr. Mayer and two of his nieces came a few days ago and I asked them to sit at my table. This afternoon I have an interruption that I am not looking forward to with pleasure. Mr. [illegible] wishes to talk to me about the School and to make some criticisms which he proposes to somebody in a letter to Mrs. Colvin. He asked if I cared to hear criticisms or rather said he supposed I did care to hear them as well as praise, to which I of course responded we were glad to hear criticisms. I inferred that he was very much dissatisfied, but I wait to hear. I do hope you have found your men or see some prospect of doing it? It is mail time, so I must say goodbye, but not without telling you once more how sorry I am to have said anything about the letter. Lovingly yours, Mary E.G.