rselves tricked into a thorough party
at Mrs. M.'s, a quadrille and a commerce table,
and music in the other room. There were two pools
at commerce, but I would not play more than one,
for the stake was three shillings, and I cannot
afford to lose that twice in an evening. The Miss
M.'s were as civil and as silly as usual.

* * * * *

_Saturday._--Thank you for your letter, which
found me at the breakfast table with my two
companions.

I am greatly pleased with your account of Fanny; I
found her in the summer just what you describe,
almost another sister; and could not have
supposed that a niece would ever have been so
much to me. She is quite after one's own heart;
give her my best love, and tell her that I always
think of her with pleasure.

* * * * *

Martha was an hour and a half in Winchester,
walking about with the three boys and at the
pastry-cook's. She thought Edward grown, and
speaks with the same admiration as before of his
manners; she saw in George a little likeness to
his uncle Henry.

[October 13.]

I have received your letter, and with most
melancholy anxiety was it expected, for the sad
news reached us last night, but without any
particulars. It came in a short letter to Martha
from her sister, begun at Steventon and finished
in Winchester.

We have felt--we do feel--for you all, as you will
not need to be told: for you, for Fanny, for
Henry, for Lady Bridges, and for dearest Edward,
whose loss and whose sufferings seem to make those
of every other person nothing. God be praised that
you can say what you do of him: that he has a
religious mind to bear him up, and a disposition
that will gradually lead him to comfort.

My dear, dear Fanny, I am so thankful that she has
you with her! You will be everything to her; you
will give her all the consolation that human aid
can give. May the Almighty sustain you all, and
keep you, my dearest Cassandra, well; but for the
pre