L. Dora Schmitz an Ernst Haeckel, Glasgow, 2. Januar 1894
c/o James A. Allan, Esq.
13 PARK TERRACE
GLASGOW
Jan. 2nd 1894
My dear Professor Haeckel,
How can I sufficiently thank you for your most kind and beautiful Xmas greeting. The reproductions of your interesting Indian sketches are in themselves a valuable and welcome gift, but you have doubled & trebled my pleasure in them by adding those friendly and generous words in your own handwriting. I feel || very proud and flattered by this friendly and kind remembrance from you.
I am afraid many friends have thought me unmindful of them at this New Year, but I was suddenly called north because my dear sister Mrs Young was said to be very ailing after a severe attack of influenza. She has certainly not quite recovered but I find her better than I expected, & have further discovered that the real reason of my having || been coaxed north is that my dear little niece (Mrs Allan) with whom I am staying, wished to show me her baby-boy who is just one year old and a bewitching little mortal assuredly.
Altogether there is such a delightful atmosphere of joyousness in this pretty home that even the most misanthropical of beings (which I am not luckily) would become bright & happy here. – Having come north I shall stay a little, for || beautiful Edinburgh and old friends there must be called upon, but I hope to be home by the middle of February & to find work. I have lately done a good deal of translation & editing for the Royal. Historical Society.
But now I must not take up more of your time & only again assure you of my beautiful pleasure in having received such very kind words from you. With every good wish for the New Year, I remain
Yours sincerely & gratefully
L. Dora Schmitz