Page 1: 17 May, 1835 Dear Mrs. Wickham, Allow me to share my deepest condolences. I hope you will not think it rude for me to intrude upon your grief, as I imagine you must feel some. The news of your husband’s death has reached me all the way across the Atlantic, and I could not stop myself from putting pen to paper and sending you my heart back across the waves. Kitty sends her love to you, and joins me in wishing you would take any one of your sisters’ invitations to go and live in their homes. I will even presume to count myself among their number; you are my sister as much as Kitty, Lizzy, Jane, and Mary are, by marriage and by affinity. Lydia — if I may presume upon your patience once more to call you so familiarly — you are always welcome here in New York. A wonderful