her hands.

Charles Greville's book (for it is not a pamphlet) is called "The Policy
of England to Ireland," or something as nearly like that as possible. My
praise of it may occasion you some disappointment, for I am pleased with
it more because it is so much better than anything I expected from him
than because it is particularly powerful or striking in itself. The
subject interests me a good deal, and the book is very agreeably and
well written, and in a far better tone than I should have looked for in
anything of his.

I have besought Mr. Lowndes to forward my letters to me without any
delay, and I have no doubt he will do so....

As for death, well is it with those who quietly reach the fifth act of
their lives, with only the usual and inevitable decay and dropping off
of all beloved things which time must bring; the sudden catastrophe of
adverse circumstance, wrecking a whole existence in the very middle of
its course, is a more terrible thing than death.

My dearest Hal, I have no more to say but that "I love you." Emily is
talking to me, and I feel as if I ought to talk to her. Give my dear
love to dear Dorothy, and believe me

Ever yours,
FANNY.

ROME, TRINITA DEI MONTI, Monday, April 20th, 1846.

You ask me what I shall do in the spring, my dear Hal. My present plan
is to return to England next December, and remain with my father, if he
can have me with him without inconvenience, till the weather is fine
enough to admit of my returning without too much wretchedness to
America....

When E---- and my father wrote to me to return to England, I had no idea
but that I was to have a home with the latter, that he expected and
wished me to live with him.... I think now that if his deafness obliges
him to give up his public readings, and cuts him off from his club and
the society that he likes, he will not be sorry that I should remain
with him....

By-the-by, I take your question about my plans for the spring to refer
not to this but to next spring, as I suppose you know that I mean to
remain with my sister during the coming summer, and that we are going to
spend the greater part of it at Frascati, where E---- has taken a
charming apartment in a lovely villa belonging to the Borghese.

You will be in England next winter, dear Hal, and I shall come then and
stay with you and Dorothy. You ha