I stammered
out a bow, and, at just ten minutes after eight, I went home--forever."
At this time Lamb's salary was six hundred pounds per annum. The amount of
two thirds of this sum, therefore, would be an annuity of four hundred
pounds. But an annual provision was also made for his sister, in case she
should survive him; and this occasioned a small diminution. In exact
figures, he was to receive three hundred and ninety-one pounds a year
during the remainder of his life, and then an annuity was to become
payable to Mary Lamb. His sensations, first of stupefaction, and
afterwards of measureless delight, will be seen by reference to his
exulting letters of this period. First he writes to Wordsworth of "the
good that has befallen me." These are his words: "I came home--forever--on
Tuesday last. The incomprehensibleness of my condition overwhelmed me. It
was like passing from Time into Eternity." * * * "Mary wakes every morning
with an obscure feeling that some good has happened to us."--To Bernard
Barton his words are, "I have scarce steadiness of head to compose a
letter. I am free, B. B.; free as air. I will live another fifty years."
* * * "Would I could sell you some of my leisure! Positively the best thing
a man can have to do is--NOTHING: and next to that, perhaps, Good Works.
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