us enjoyed. There has been a great deal of violent
and dangerous illness among the English residents passing the summer at
Frascati and Albano; quite enough indeed, I think, to justify the ill
repute of unhealthiness with which the whole of this beautiful region is
branded. Our whole family has escaped all serious inconvenience, either
from the malaria usual to the place or the unusual heat of the summer;
the children especially have been in admirable health and lovely looks,
the whole time we have been here....

God bless you, my dearest Hal! I am afraid that it is true that I often
appear wanting in charity towards the vices and follies of my
fellow-creatures; and yet I really have a great deal more than my
outbreaks of vehement denunciation would seem to indicate; and of one
thing I am sure, that with regard to any wrong or injury committed
against myself, a very short time enables me not only to forgive it, but
to perceive all the rational excuses and attenuations that it admits of.
I certainly am not conscious of any bitterness of heart towards any
one.... I believe it is only in the first perception of evil or sense of
injury that I am unmeasured or unreasonable in my expression of
condemnation--but you know, my dear, _suddenness_ is the curse of my
nature.... But my self-love always springs up against the shadow of
blame, and so you need pay no heed to what I say in self-justification.
If I am censured justly, I shall accept the reproof inwardly, whatever
outward show I may make of defending myself against it; for the grace of
humility is even more deficient in me than that of charity, and to
submit graciously to what seems to me unjust blame is hitherto a virtue
I do not possess at all.

[After my return to England, I resumed the exercise of my theatrical
profession; the less distasteful occupation of giving public
readings, which I adopted subsequently, was not then open to me. My
father was giving readings from Shakespeare, and it was impossible
for me to thrust my sickle into a field he was reaping so
successfully. I therefore returned to the stage; under what
disadvantageously altered circumstances it is needless to say.

A stout, middle-aged, not particularly good-looking woman, such as I
then was, is not a very attractive representative of Juliet or
Julia; nor had I, in the retirement of nine years of private life,
improved by study or experience my talent for