'Since I heard, from authority, that you were the author of Scenes from "Clerical Life" and "Adam Bede", I have read them again; and I must, once more, tell you how earnestly fully, and humbly I admire them. I never read anything so complete, and beautiful in fiction, in my whole life before. [She then writes a bit about the imposture of Mr Liggins as the books' author, concluding] I should not be quite true in my ending, if I did not say before I concluded that I wish you [italics] were [end italics] Mrs Lewes. However, that can't be helped, as far as I can see, and one must not judge others. Once more, thanking you most gratefully for having written all - Janet's Repentance perhaps most especially of all, - (& may I tell you how I singled out the 2nd No of Amos Barton in Blackwood, & went plodging through our Manchester Sts to get every number, as soon as it was accessible from the Portico reading table - )'