The old parts of London, which you are sometimes surprised at my knowing so well, those old gates and houses down by the river, have all played their part in my stories.' He spoke, too, of the manner in which he used to wander about Paris, weaving tales of the Revolution, and he thought that he owed his command of language greatly to this habit.
"I am very sorry that the want both of ability and memory should prevent my preserving with greater truth a conversation which interested me very much.
"May 21, 1831 .-- Tom was from London at the time my mother's death occurred, and things fell out in such a manner that the first information he received of it was from the newspapers.

He came home directly.

He was in an agony of distress, and gave way at first to violent bursts of feeling.

During the whole of the week he was with us all day, and was the greatest comfort to us imaginable.

He talked a great deal of our sorrow, and led the conversation by degrees to other subjects, bearing the whole burden of it himself and interesting us without jarring with the predominant feeling of the time.