Perhaps most touching is her pride in her son, also called Percy and the only one of her children with Shelley to survive infancy. “Percy is growing up a very fine young man & developing tastes & talents that would remind you of his father \u201d\u201c though he has not that touch that at once made Shelley angelic & unfortunate.” After her son goes to Cambridge, she writes, “he is getting all that we could wish \u201d\u201c he is getting very liberal \u201d\u201c & has so much character & talent \u201d\u201c though still shy \u201d\u201c that I have every hope for his future happiness”.<\/p>\n
His sweet nature “repays me for how many years of sadness”, she writes later, though she also admits: “I am mortified he is not taller.”<\/p>\n
Her own worsening health hampers the communication in later years. “Today I have been down stairs & taken an airing for the first time \u201d\u201c I hope I shall have no relapse,” she writes to Eliza in 1846. “This note looks blotty and invalidy \u201d\u201c indeed my drive has tired me.”<\/p>\n