blic entirely
out of account) for that fearful risk. God help us all! 'Tis a hard
matter to judge rightly on any point whatever; and settled and firm as I
had believed my opinion on this subject to be, I was surprised to find
how terrible it was to me to see my sister, that woman most dear to me,
deliberately leave a path where the sure harvest of her labor is
independent fortune, and a not unhonorable distinction, and a powerful
hold upon the sympathy, admiration, and even kindly regard of her
fellow-creatures, while she thus not unworthily ministers to their
delight, for a life where, if she does not find happiness, what will
atone to her for all this that she will have left? However, I have need
to remember, while thinking of her and her future, what I have never
forgotten hitherto, that the soul lives neither on fortune, fame, nor
happiness; and that which is noblest in her, which is above either her
genius, grace, or beauty, and far more precious than all of them united,
will thrive, it may be, better in obscurity and the different trials of
her different life than in the vocation she is now abandoning. _Amen!_

Thank you, my dear Granny, for all your advice, and still more for the
love which dictates it; I lay both to heart. Thank you, too, for the
little book. I wish I knew the woman who wrote it; she must be a
paragon.

God bless you, dear Granny. I write you a kiss as the children do, and
am

Ever your affectionate
FANNY.

HARLEY STREET, October 2nd, 1842.
MY DEAR T----,

It is hardly of any use writing to you, because, unless I am "drowned in
the ditch," I shall see you very soon after you get this letter. I have,
however, as I believe you know, a very decided principle upon the
subject of answering letters, and therefore shall duly reply to your
epistle, though I hope to follow this in less than a fortnight.

I am sorry to say that if your ever "feeling young again" is to depend
upon your seeing a _Miss Kemble_ once more in America, you are doomed to
disappointment, and must decidedly go on, not only growing but feeling
old, as _Miss Kembles_ there are now no more--at least at my father's
house.... So you see a due regard for her fellow-creatures on the other
side of the Atlantic has not existed in my sister's heart, or she would,
of course, have postponed all persona