ounting to nearly L50, presented to
me by a young legal gentleman with whom we had been upon terms of
friendly acquaintance, and whom we had employed, as he was just
beginning business, to execute the papers for the deed of gift I
have mentioned, by which my father left me at his death my earnings,
the use of which I had given up to him on my marriage for his
lifetime.

Our young legal gentleman used to pay us the most inconceivably
tedious visits, during which his principal object appeared to be to
obtain from us every sort of information upon the subject of all and
sundry American investments and securities. Over and over again I
was on the point of saying "Not at home" to these interminably
wearisome visitations, but refrained, out of sheer good nature and
unwillingness to mortify my _visitant_. Great, therefore, was our
surprise, on receiving a _bill of costs_, to find every one of these
intolerable intrusions upon our time and patience charged, as
personal business consultations, at 13_s._ 8_d._ The thing was so
ludicrous that I laughed till I cried over the price of our friend's
civilities. On paying the amount, though of course I made no comment
upon the price of my social and legal privileges, I suppose the
young gentleman's own conscience (he was only just starting in his
profession, and may have had one) pricked him slightly, for with a
faint hysterical giggle, he said, "I dare say you think it rather
sharp practice, but, you see, getting married and furnishing the
house is rather expensive,"--an explanation of the reiterated
thirteens and sixpences of the bill, which was candid, at any rate,
and put them in the more affable light of an extorted wedding
present, which was rather pleasant.]

PHILADELPHIA, June 4th, 1843.
DEAREST GRANNY,

You will long ere this have received my grateful acknowledgments of your
pretty present and most kind letter, received, with many tears and
heart-yearnings, in the middle of that horrible ocean. I will not renew
my thanks, though I never can thank you enough for that affectionate
inspiration of following me on that watery waste, with tokens of your
remembrance, and cheering that most dismal of all conditions with such
an unlooked-for visitation of love.

I wrote to you from Halifax, where, on the deck of our steamer, your