TO MRS. HAWTHORNE

 TO MRS. HAWTHORNE

 

Lenox, August 8th, 1851

 

Ownest Phoebe,

 

I wrote thee a note yesterday, and sent it to the village by Cornelius; but as he may have neglected to put it in, I write again. If thou wilt¹ start from West Newton on Thursday next, I will meet thee at Pittsfield, which will answer the same purpose as if I came all the way.

 

Mrs. Tappan requests that thou wilt bring ten pounds of ground rice for her; or a less quantity, if thou hast not room for so much.

 

Julian is very well, and keeps himself happy from morning till night. I hope Una does the same. Give my love to her.

 

I shall be most gladdest to see thee.

 

Thine,

N. H.

 

August 9th.—Saturday.—I recd. yesterday 214 thy note, in which thou speakest of deferring² thy return some days longer. Stay by all means as long as may be needful. Julian gets along perfectly³ well; and I am eager for thy coming only because it is unpleasant to remain torn asunder⁴. Thou wilt write to tell me finally what day thou decidest upon;—but unless I hear from thee, I shall go to Pittsfield on Saturday, a week from to-day. But if thou seest reason for staying longer do so, that nothing may be left at loose ends.

 

Julian and I had a fine ride yesterday with Herman Melville and two other gentlemen.

 

Mrs. Peters is perfectly angelic.

 

Thinest,

N. H.

1 wilt   

v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱

参考例句：

• Golden roses do not wilt and will never need to be watered.金色的玫瑰不枯萎绝也不需要浇水。
• Several sleepless nights made him wilt.数个不眠之夜使他憔悴。

2 deferring   

v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的现在分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从

参考例句：

• Recently, the Supreme Court has focused on an additional reason for deferring to administrative agencies. 最近，最高法院强调了尊重行政机构的另一种理由。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Think of it as deferring part of the compiler's job to runtime. 可以认为这是将编译器的部分工作延迟到了运行时。 来自互联网

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 asunder   

adj.分离的，化为碎片

参考例句：

• The curtains had been drawn asunder.窗帘被拉向两边。
• Your conscience,conviction,integrity,and loyalties were torn asunder.你的良心、信念、正直和忠诚都被扯得粉碎了。