* * * * *
Sir John Herschel returned to England in 1838, and in July of the same
year he and his little son paid a visit to Miss Herschel. It is
characteristic that her intense anxiety as to the proper treatment of
her little grand-nephew--his sleep, his food, his playthings--greatly
disturbed her peace. "I rather suffered him," she writes, "to hunger,
than would let him eat anything hurtful; indeed, I would not let him eat
anything at all unless his papa was present." Her biographer remarks,
that great as was her joy to see once more almost the only living being
upon whom she poured some of that wealth of affection with which her
heart never ceased to overflow, yet it was on the disappointments and
shortcomings of those few days, those precious days, that she chiefly
dwelt; and the abrupt termination of her nephew's visit filled her with
the deepest sorrow. With the generous, but, as it proved, mistaken
intention of sparing her feelings, her nephew left without informing her
beforehand of the exact time of his departure, simply bidding her
good-night prior to his return to his inn.
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