e; the former will therefore be deposited
in the soil of Hampshire instead of Kent, the
latter I have already consigned to another
element.

We have been exceedingly busy ever since you went
away. In the first place we have had to rejoice
two or three times every day at your having such
very delightful weather for the whole of your
journey, and in the second place we have been
obliged to take advantage of the very delightful
weather ourselves by going to see almost all our
neighbours.

On Thursday we walked to Deane, yesterday to
Oakley Hall and Oakley, and to-day to Deane again.
At Oakley Hall we did a great deal--eat some
sandwiches all over mustard, admired Mr.
Bramston's porter, and Mrs. Bramston's
transparencies, and gained a promise from the
latter of two roots of heartsease, one all yellow
and the other all purple, for you. At Oakley we
bought ten pair of worsted stockings and a shift;
the shift is for Betty Dawkins, as we find she
wants it more than a rug; she is one of the most
grateful of all whom Edward's charity has reached,
or at least she expresses herself more warmly than
the rest, for she sends him a 'sight of thanks.'

This morning we called at the Harwoods', and in
their dining-room found 'Heathcote and Chute[107]
for ever'--Mrs. William Heathcote and Mrs.
Chute--the first of whom took a long ride
yesterday morning with Mrs. Harwood into Lord
Carnarvon's park, and fainted away in the evening,
and the second walked down from Oakley Hall
attended by Mrs. Augusta Bramston; they had meant
to come on to Steventon afterwards, but we knew a
trick worth two of that.

* * * * *

James called by my father's desire on Mr.
Bayle[108] to inquire into the cause of his being
so horrid. Mr. Bayle did not attempt to deny his
being horrid, and made many apologies for it; he
did not plead his having a drunken self, he talked
only of a drunken foreman, &c., and gave hopes of
the tables being at Steventon on Monday se'nnight
next. We have had no letter since