gle on the part of her
husband (who has taken her home again) not to wound her conscience,
which is so sick and sore that every word, breath, and look _does_ wound
it, might form, I think, an interesting dramatic picture, with
considerable elements for poetry to work upon.

I went to the Duchess of Sutherland's fancy ball in my favorite costume,
a Spanish dress, which suited my finances as well as my fancy, my
person, and my purse; for I had nothing to get but a short black satin
skirt, having beautiful flounces of black lace, high comb, mantilla,
and, in short, all things needful already in my own possession.

I have told you of Adelaide's new prospects, in which I rejoice as much
as I can rejoice in anything. She is herself very happy, poor child! and
'tis a pleasure and a positive relief to see her face, with its bright
expression of newly dawned hope upon it.

Good-night, dear. My head aches, and I feel weary and worn out; our life
just now is one of insane, incessant dissipation. Thank God, I have a
bed, and have not lost the secret of sleeping.

Ever yours,
FANNY.

[A long discussion with my wise and excellent friend and connection,
Mr. Horace Wilson, induced me to think a good deal upon the
possibility of a man, in the position of Kotzebue's "Stranger,"
receiving back his wife to the home she had deserted. Mr. Wilson
condemned the idea as absolutely inadmissible and fatally immoral.
In our Saviour's teaching it is said that a man shall put away his
wife for only _one_ cause; but is it said that he shall in every
case put her away for _that_ cause? and is the offence a wife
commits against her husband the one exception to the universal law
of the forgiveness which Christ taught? Men have so considered it;
and in the general interest of the preservation of society, a wife's
fidelity to her duties becomes one of the most important elements of
security; the protection of the family, the integrity of
inheritance, the rightful descent of property, are all involved in
it. But these are questions of social expediency, and, though based
on deep moral foundations, are not of such overwhelming moral force
as to forbid the contemplation of any possible exception to their
authority. I have heard--I know not if it is true--that in some
parts of Germany,