Chapter 322

CHARLES LAMB TO MARY BETHAM

June 5, 1833.

Dear Mary Betham,--I remember You all, and tears come out when I think on the years that have separated us. That dear Anne should so long have remembered us affects me. My dear Mary, my poor sister is not, nor will be for two months perhaps capable of appreciating the _kind old long memory_ of dear Anne.

But not a penny will I take, and I can answer for my Mary when she recovers, if the sum left can contribute in any way to the comfort of Matilda.

We will halve it, or we will take a bit of it, as a token, rather than wrong her. So pray consider it as an amicable arrangement. I write in great haste, or you won't get it before you go.

_We do not want the money_; but if dear Matilda does not much want it, why, we will take our thirds. God bless you.

C. LAMB.

[Miss Betham's sister, Anne, who had just died, had left thirty pounds to Mary Lamb. Mr. Ernest Betham allows me to take this note from _A House of Letters_.]