"Yes; the Christmas number _was_ intended as a conveyance of all
friendly greetings in season and out of season. As to its lesson, you
need it almost as little as any man I know; for all your study and
seclusion conduce to the general good, and disseminate truths that men
cannot too earnestly take to heart. Yes, a capital story that of 'The
Two Seaborn Babbies,' and wonderfully droll, I think. I may say so
without blushing, for it is not by me. It was done by Wilkie Collins."
Here is another short note, not a little gratifying to me personally,
but not without interest of a larger kind to the reader:--
* * * * *
"_Tuesday, 15th November, 1859._
"MY DEAR TROLLOPE,--I write this hasty word, just as the post leaves,
to ask you this question, which this moment occurs to me.
"Montalembert, in his suppressed treatise, asks, 'What wrong has Pope
Pius the Ninth done?' Don't you think you can very pointedly answer
that question in these pages? If you cannot, nobody in Europe can.
Very faithfully yours always,
"CHARLES DICKENS"
* * * * *
Some, some few, may remember the interest excited by the treatise to
which the above letter refers. No doubt I could, and doubtless did,
though I forget all about it, answer the question propounded by the
celebrated French writer. But there was little hope of my doing it
as "pointedly" as my correspondent would have done it himself.
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