esome results of its being amusement instead of
business; the late hours--three o'clock in the morning--and champagne
and lobster salad suppers, instead of my former professional decent tea
and to bed, after my work, before twelve o'clock.

Adelaide acted Helen charmingly, without having bestowed the slightest
pains upon it. Had she condescended to give it five minutes' careful
study, it would have been a perfect performance of its kind; but as it
was, it was delightfully droll, lively, and graceful, and certainly
proved her natural powers of comic acting to be very great....

You ask me about my play. I have not touched it since I wrote to you
last, and really do not know when I shall have a minute in which to do
so, unless, indeed, in this coming week at Oatlands,--and a great deal
may be done in a week; but I am altogether quite down about it. Our last
representation of "The Hunchback" was, as in duty bound, the best, and
everybody was, or pretended to be, in ecstasies with it. Our time and
attention have been so engrossed with the dresses, rehearsals, and
performances that we absolutely seemed to experience a sudden _lull_ in
our daily lives after it was all over.

I shall probably not be in town till the 24th. I am going down to Mrs.
Grote's with my sister on the 21st, and as S---- is of the party, it
will not, I suppose, be according to "received ideas" that I should
leave her there. On the 24th, however, she must be back in town; and as
for my departure for America, dear Hal, you do well not to grieve too
much beforehand about that.... Therefore, my dear Hal, lament not over
my departure, for Heaven only knows when we shall depart, or if indeed
we shall depart at all.

Good-bye.

Ever yours,
FANNY.

OATLANDS, June 14th, 1842.
MY DEAREST HAL,

... I return to town this evening in order to go to a party at Mrs.
Grote's, to which we have been engaged for some time past, and remain in
town all to-morrow, because we dine at Harness's.... The quiet of this
place, and very near twelve hours' sleep, and, above all, a temporary
relief from all causes of nervous distress, have done me all the good in
the world.... I cannot but think mine, in one respect, a curious fate;
and perhaps, with the magnifying propensity of egotism, I exaggerate
what seems to me its peculiarity. Bu