n.

My dearest H----, I wrote all this at Burnham. You will see by this
that we do not leave England by the next steamer, and I think there is
every probability of my remaining here for some time to come, and,
therefore, spending a full fortnight with you at Hastings....

I have a quantity to say to you about everything, but neither time nor
room. We had much talk about Arnold at the Beeches, and the justice
dealt him by a cynical poet, a hard-headed political economist, a
steeled man of the world, and two most dissimilar unbelievers was
various and curious.

Yours ever,
FANNY.

MORTIMER STREET, November 26th, 1845.
MY DEAREST HAL,

I expect my father home to-day; but, as I have written to you, his note
from Brighton expressed no annoyance at my determination....

I must see if I cannot possibly write something for a few pence, so as
not to stretch out a beggar's hand even to him.... I enjoyed my visit to
Burnham extremely: the admirable clever talk, the capital charming
music, the delight of being in the country, and the ecstasy of a fifteen
miles' ride through beautiful parks and lanes, filled my time most
pleasurably. I know no one who has such a capacity (that looks as if I
had written _ra_pacity--either will do) for enjoyment, or has so much of
it in mere life--when I am not being tortured--as I have. I ought to be
infinitely thankful for my elastic temperament; there never was anything
like it but the lady heroine of Andersen's story "The Ball," who had
"cork in her body."

We had much talk about Arnold and Bunsen, much about Sydney Smith,
several of whose letters Mrs. Grote gave us to read. Rogers read them
aloud, and his comments were very entertaining, especially with the
additional fun of Mrs. Grote holding one of the letters up to me in a
corner alone, when I read, "I never think of death in London but when I
meet Rogers," etc.

I have written a very long letter to my sister to-day, and one to E----.
I am going to dine with Mrs. Procter, to meet Milnes, whose poetry you
know I read to you here one evening, and you liked it, as I do, some of
it, very much.... As for L----, I think one should be a great deal
cleverer than he is to be so amazingly conceited, _and of course, if
one was, one wouldn't be_; and if that sentence is not lovely, neither
is "Beaver hats." ("Beave