The news of your friend Mr. Mueller’s whirlwind engagement did, I must admit, astonish me. I confess that I had nurtured hopes that you and he might make each other happy. I know you well enough, though we have not met face-to-face for far too many years now, to believe that when you say you are delighted for him, you truly are.

I will end this missive with news of another match—my own! (Oh, how I wish I could see your reaction to that news!) You may recall my mentioning the priest who came to Lambeth from a neighbouring parish to help Mr. Glass? His name is Martin Poll Wright. He was a great support to me in those dark days, and in our case friendship has blossomed into love. He proposed today, the dear man wishing to endow this saddest of dates with a much happier significance, and I was delighted to accept.

I am, I assure you, very happy. My beloved Frederick will always have a place in my heart, but I have discovered that there is room there for another. My love for Martin is very different in nature from my feelings for Frederick, but no less true. I never believed I would marry again, and if Sebastian had lived, I may never have considered it, but the loss of my brother forced me to re-evaluate my own life. I have been lonely, Margaret. An odd thing to say, perhaps, for a woman who never lacks for company or occupation, but it is true nonetheless. In Martin I have found real and much-needed companionship as well as love.

My future husband has been posted to a new parish in Cornwall, and so this will be my last letter from the little cottage in Lambeth I have called home for the last two years. We will be married in his church on the fourteenth of January and commence our new life there immediately. It could not be more different from Lambeth, which I will miss terribly, but is an exciting change nonetheless. Who could have imagined, only a few short years ago, me in Cornwall and you in New York. Isn’t life wonderfully unpredictable?

I will write from my new address as soon as I can, and look forward to hearing every step of your journey to build your sanctuary. Think of me on the day, dear Margaret, and send us your blessing.

With love,

Susannah

New York Herald, Wednesday, 11 October 1871

New York Herald, Wednesday, 11 October 1871

A VERY WORTHY CAUSE OPENS ITS DOORS ON WORTH STREET

The new Worth Street Children’s Sanctuary was officially opened yesterday by Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott. The Sanctuary, as it is already known by the Five Points residents, is a new-built three-story brownstone on a site with ample room for expansion.