n....

I am surprised by the term "worthless fellow" which A---- applies to
----. I think him selfish and calculating, but I am getting so
accustomed to find everybody so that it seems to me superfluous
fastidiousness to be deterred from dealings with any one on that
account....

I do not write vaguely to my sister about my arrangements; but you know
I have no certain plans, and it is difficult to write with precision
about what is not precise.

I am not going to Norwich just yet; the theatre is at present engaged
by the Keeleys, and the manager's arrangements with them and
Mademoiselle Celeste are such that he cannot receive me until August. I
may possibly act a night or two at Newcastle in Staffordshire, and at
Rochdale, but this would not take me away for more than a week.

In answer to your question of what "coarsenesses" L---- finds in my book
["A Year of Consolation"], I will give you an extract from her letter.
"There are a few expressions I should like to have stricken out of it;
_par exemple_, I hate the word _stink_, though I confess there is no
other to answer its full import; and there are one or two passages the
careless manner of writing which astonished me in you. You must have
caught it from what you say is my way of talking." Now, Hal, I can only
tell you that more than once I thought myself actually to blame for not
giving with more detail the disgusting elements which in Rome mingle
everywhere with what is sublime and exquisite; for it appeared to me
that to describe and dilate upon one half of the truth only was to be an
unfaithful painter, and destroy the merit, with the accuracy, of the
picture. I remember, particularly, standing one morning absorbed in this
very train of reflection, in the Piazza del Popolo, when on attempting
to approach the fine fountains below the Pincio I found it impossible to
get near them for the abominations by which they were surrounded, and
thought how unfaithful to the truth it would be to speak of the grace
and beauty of this place, and not of this detestable desecration of it.
The place and the people can only be perfectly described through the
whole, as you know. Farewell.

Ever yours,
FANNY.

RAILWAY STATION, HULL, Friday, 4th.

I have been spending the afternoon crying over the tender mercies of
English Christians to their pau