My dearest Fanny

I cannot resist writing one line to thank you for having so tenderly advised me to return to home,¹ I am sure I have acted best for Emma’s sake. It is some sort of consolation to weep bitterly together. The more I think of it, the greater the comfort is to me, that one who wept as tenderly as the tenderest parent over our poor child should follow her to the grave. I know of no other human being whom I could have asked to have undertaken so painful a task. God bless you dearest Fanny for it: sometime think with satisfaction how kindly you have acted towards us in our misery. Poor Emma is very firm, but is of course repeatedly overwhelmed with grief. I owe it to you that I am here.

Dear Fanny I cannot thank you. Sometime I sh^d wish to know on which side & part of the Church-Yard, as far as you can describe it, the body of our once joyous child rests.²

Yours most affectionately | C. Darwin

mention how you are yourself my dearest F. Ch. says you looked quite ill.³