Autograph letter signed : London, to John Ruskin, [1886] May 1.

Expressing delight at Ruskin's offer to "bring out a small volume on Carlyle but indicating that he prefers "not to attempt to describe (directly) C[arlyle]'s character. I preferred to let it appear in the story and in his own clear letters; describing Carlyle as "not selfish, not consciously or deliberately selfish, not selfish at all in the ordinary sense but he required everything to be sacrificed to his convenience. He was intensely occupied with his work & with 'the message' which he had to deliver--He never considered those he lived with in the small things of every day life. Where they had worked & slaved for him he was really grateful, but he was too shy--or too something to show it--Domestic life is a give and take and with him it was all take;" referring to "her [Jane Welsh Carlyle] life was a tragedy[.]....She admired him, & reverenced him and would have loved him if she could....For me she had some unaccountable regard, and it was for this reason I believe that C[arlyle] left her to me as a legacy which he would not trust to any of his own family[.]"