on Saturday, in order to be out of the way, for we leave
this house on Monday, and their departure will facilitate the verifying
of inventories and all the intolerable confusion of our last hours. Mrs.
Cooper, as well as Miss Hall, will go with them to Liverpool, and I have
requested that, instead of staying in the town, they may go down to
Crosby Beach, six miles from it, and wait there for our arrival. This is
all my history. I am in one perpetual bustle, and I thank Heaven for it;
I have no leisure to think or to feel....

I beg leave to inform you that Miss Hall came to my party in a most
elegant black satin dress, with her hair curled in _profuse ringlets_
all over her head.

God bless you, my dear Hal. Good-bye.

Ever yours,
F. A. B.

Thursday, April 27th, 1843.
DEAREST HAL,

You ask how it goes with me. Why, I think pretty much as it did with the
poor gentleman who went up in the flying machine t'other day, which,
upon some of his tackle giving way, began, as he describes, to "turn
round and round in the air with the most frightful velocity." My
condition, I think, too, will find the same climax as his, viz. falling
in a state of _senselessness_ into a steam-packet. If the account be
true, it was a very curious one. As for me, I am absolutely breathless
with things to do and things to think of.... Still, I get on (like a
deeply freighted ship in a churning sea, to be sure), but I _do_ make
some way, and the days _do_ go by, and I am glad to see the end of this
season of trial approaching, for all our sakes.

Any one would suppose I was in great spirits, for I fly about, singing
at the top of my voice, and only stop every now and then to pump up a
sigh as big as the house, and clear my eyes of the tears that are
blinding me. Occasionally, too, a feeling of my last moments here, and
my leave-taking of my father and sister, shoots suddenly through my
mind, and turns me dead sick; but all is well with me upon the whole,
nevertheless.

Adelaide was in great health and spirits on Monday night, and sang for
us, and seemed to enjoy herself very much, and gave great delight to
everybody who heard her. She sang last night again at Chorley's, but I
thought her voice sounded a little tired. To be sure, in those tiny
boxes of rooms, the carpets and curtains choke one's voice bac