FANNY.

CLARGES STREET, Sunday, June 20th, 1841.

You know, dearest Harriet, my aversion to writing short letters; I have
something of the same feeling about that hateful little note-paper on
which I have lately written to you. The sight of these fair large
squares laid on my table, and of at least six unanswered letters of
yours, prompts me to use this quiet half-hour--quiet by comparison only,
for ----, Adelaide, and little F---- are shouting all round me, and a
distracting brass band, that I dote upon, is playing tunes to which I am
literally writing in time; nevertheless, in this house, this may be
called a moment of profoundest quiet.

I do not believe that you will have quarrelled much with the note-paper,
because I certainly filled it as well as I could; but I always feel
insulted when anybody that I really care for writes to me on those
frivolous, insufficient-looking sheets. I suppose, if you have missed
Emily's Boswellian records of our sayings and doings here, you have
received from her instead epistles redolent of the sweetness of the
country, whole nosegays of words, that have made me gasp again for the
grass and trees, and the natural enjoyments of life. Her affectionate
remembrance reaches me every day by penny post, a little envelope full
of delicious orange-blossoms, with which my clothes and everything about
me are perfumed for the rest of the day.

You have not said much to me about the daguerreotype, nor did you ask me
anything about the process; but that, I suppose, is because Emily
furnished you with so many more details than I probably should, and with
much more scientific knowledge to make her description clear. I found
it better looking than I had expected, but altogether different, which
surprised me, because I thought I knew my own face. It was less thick in
the outlines than I had thought it would be, but also older looking than
I fancied myself, and it gave me a heavy jaw, which I was not conscious
of possessing. The process was wonderfully rapid; I think certainly not
above two minutes. I have seen several of Charles Young, which are
admirable, and do not appear to me exaggerated in any respect....

My father and Adelaide dined with the Macdonalds on Sunday; and Sir
John, who, you know, is adjutant-general, made her a kind of half
promise that he would give Henry leave to come over from Ireland and see
her.

I believe the first time that S---