ere, and leave you to judge how I was affected by them....

I am sometimes thankful that I do not live in my own country, for I am
afraid I should very hardly escape the Pharisee's condemnation for
thinking myself better than my neighbors; and yet, God knows, not only
that I am, but that I do, not. But how come people's nations so inside
out and so upside down?

Good-bye, my dear. I am enjoying the country every hour of the day. Give
my love to dear Dorothy.

Ever yours,
FANNY.

MORTIMER STREET, Monday, December 8th, 1845.
MY DEAREST HAL,

Your delightful little inkstand is the very pest of my life; it keeps
tumbling over backwards every minute, and pouring the ink all over, and
making me swear (which is really a pity), and is, in short, invaluable;
and I am so much more obliged to you than I was even at first for it,
now that I know, I hope, all its inestimable qualities, that I think it
right to mention the increased gratitude I feel for the hateful little
bottle. There it goes again! Oh, thank you, my love! Just let me pick it
up, and wipe the mess it has made.

I left the Hoo this morning, and have just been a couple of hours in
Mortimer Street. I find my father going to dine at Judge Talfourd's,
and, I am happy to say, free from the pain in his side which had alarmed
me, and which I now suppose, as he did at the time, to have proceeded
only from cold. He looks well, and is in good spirits.

I find a note here from Miss Berry, inviting me to dinner _to-day_,
which has been waiting for me ever since Friday. Of course I could not
go, and felt distressed that the old lady's kind bidding should have
remained so long unanswered. Just as I was despatching my excuse,
however, in rushed Agnes (Gooseberry, you know, as Sydney Smith used to
call her), all screams and interjections, to know why I hadn't answered
her note, which was very annoying. However, in nursery language, I
_peacified_ the good old lady to the best of my ability. I am sorry to
lose their pleasant party, but have an excessive dislike to hurrying
immediately from one thing to another in this way, and therefore must
really spend this evening of my arrival in peace and quiet.

Mrs. ---- called to-day. I am sorry to say that she provokes me now,
instead of only annoying me, as she used to do. It's really quite
dreadful! She talk