though it appears to me as senseless a
cause of trouble as ever human being chose to accept, yet as incessant
bitterness and mortification and annoyance are its results for her, poor
soul! of course to her it is real enough, if not in itself, in the
results she gathers from it.

My dinner has intervened, my dear, since this last sentence, and,
moreover, a permission from my sister to inform you that _she is engaged
to be married_!...

You ask how Adelaide looks after her Dublin campaign. She looks better
now, in spite of all her fatigue, than she has done since her return
from Italy; her face looks almost fat, to which appearance, however, it
is in some degree helped by her hair being already in rehearsal for "The
Hunchback," falling in ringlets on each side of her head, which becomes
her very much....

I have heard from Elizabeth Sedgwick, and she concurs in the propriety
of my _not_ giving Mrs. Child my Southern journal. I shall say no more
upon that subject....

Good-bye, dearest Harriet. I look forward with anticipated refreshment
to a ride which I have some chance of getting to-morrow, and for which I
am really gasping. I got one ride this week, and the escort that came to
the door for me touched and flattered me not a little: old Lord Grey and
Lady G----, and his two grandsons, and Lord Dacre, and B---- S----, all
came up from their part of the town _to fetch me a ride_, which was a
great kindness on their part, and an honor, pleasure, and profit to me.
God bless you, dear. I feel, as Margery says, "in a kind of bewilder,"
but ever yours,

FANNY.

[My first meeting with Mademoiselle d'Este took place at Belvoir
Castle, where we were both on a visit to the Duke of Rutland, and
where my attention was drawn to the peculiarity of her conduct by my
neighbor at the dinner-table, who said to me, just after we had
taken our places, "Do you see Mademoiselle d'Este? She will do that
now every day while she remains here." Mademoiselle d'Este at this
moment entered the dining-room alone, and passed down the side of
the table with an inclination to the duke, and a half-muttered
apology about being late. This, it seems, was simply a pretence to
cover her determination not to give precedence to any of the women
in the house by being taken into dinner after them. The Duchesses of
Bedford and Richmond, the Coun