But one day I was
entirely confined to my bed, which alarmed Lady Herschel and
the family _on my brother's account_. Miss Baldwin [a niece of
Lady Herschel] called and found me in despair about my own
confused affairs, which I never had had time to bring into any
order. The next day she brought my nephew to me, who promised
to fulfil all my wishes which I should have expressed on paper;
he begged me not to exert myself, for his father's sake, of
whom he believed _it would be the immediate death if anything
should happen to me_."
Afterwards she wrote:--
"Of my dear nephew's advice I could not avail myself, for I
knew that at that time he had weighty concerns on his mind.
And, besides, my whole life almost has passed away in the
delusion that, next to my eldest brother, none but Dietrich was
capable of giving me advice where to leave my few relics,
consisting of a few books and my sweeper [that is, the
seven-foot telescope with which she was accustomed to sweep the
heavens for comets].
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