with
our highest aristocracy, the stalls with women of rank and character,
and the performance was, I think, one of the most impudent that I ever
witnessed. Dr. Whewell [the celebrated Master of Trinity] and Mrs.
Whewell were sitting near us, and left the theatre in the middle of
Dejazet's first piece--I suppose from sheer disgust. She is a marvellous
actress, and without exception the most brazen-faced woman I ever
beheld, and that is saying a great deal. Good-bye.

Ever your affectionate
FANNY.

HARLEY STREET, Saturday, May 14th, 1842.
MY DEAREST HAL,

On my return from Oatlands yesterday, I found no fewer than four letters
of yours, and this morning I have received a fifth.... I am most
thankful for all your details about Adelaide, who, of course, will not
have time to write to any of us herself.... Miss Rainsforth, her mother,
and their travelling manager, Mr. Callcott, are her whole party.... Miss
Rainsforth is a quiet, gentle, well-conducted, well-bred, amiable
person; Mr. Callcott is a son of the composer, and a nephew of our
friend Sir Augustus, and has the refinement of mind and manners which
one would look for in any member of that family.... I am very sorry that
Adelaide cannot see more of you, and you of her....

You ask whether it is a blessing or a curse not to provide one's own
means of subsistence. I think it is a great blessing to be able and
allowed to do so. But I dare say I am not a fair judge of the question,
for the feeling of independence and power consequent upon earning large
sums of money has very much destroyed my admiration for any other mode
of support; and yet certainly my _pecuniary_ position now would seem to
most people very far preferable to my former one; but having _earned_
money, and therefore most legitimately _owned_ it, I never can conceive
that I have any right to the money of another person.... I cannot help
sometimes regretting that I did not reserve out of my former earnings at
least such a yearly sum as would have covered my personal expenses; and
having these notions, which impair the comfort of _being maintained_, I
am sometimes sorry that I no longer possess my former convenient power
of coining. I do not think I should feel so uncomfortable about
inheriting money, though I had not worked for it; for, like any other
free gift, I think I shou