read to her, and that Edward goes to sleep.

* * * * *

_Wednesday._--I have changed my mind, and changed
the trimmings of my cap this morning; they are now
such as you suggested. I felt as if I should not
prosper if I strayed from your directions, and I
think it makes me look more like Lady Conyngham
now than it did before, which is all that one
lives for now. I believe I _shall_ make my new
gown like my robe, but the back of the latter is
all in a piece with the tail, and will seven yards
enable me to copy it in that respect?

* * * * *

People get so horribly poor and economical in this
part of the world that I have no patience with
them. Kent is the only place for happiness;
everybody is rich there. I must do similar
justice, however, to the Windsor neighbourhood.

Steventon: Monday night [December 24, 1798].

MY DEAR CASSANDRA,--I have got some pleasant news
for you which I am eager to communicate, and
therefore begin my letter sooner, though I shall
not _send_ it sooner than usual.

Admiral Gambier, in reply to my father's
application, writes as follows:--'As it is usual
to keep young officers in small vessels, it being
most proper on account of their inexperience, and
it being also a situation where they are more in
the way of learning their duty, your son has been
continued in the _Scorpion_; but I have mentioned
to the Board of Admiralty his wish to be in a
frigate, and when a proper opportunity offers and
it is judged that he has taken his turn in a small
ship, I hope he will be removed. With regard to
your son now in the _London_ I am glad I can give
you the assurance that his promotion is likely to
take place very soon, as Lord Spencer has been so
good as to say he would include him in an
arrangement that he proposes making in a short
time relative to some promotions in that quarter.'

There! I may now finish my letter and go and hang
myself, for I am sure I can neither write nor do
anything which will not appear insipid to