fortune
is far beyond what I could ever have expected without the legacy, and
equal to all I could hope for with it. If, therefore, there is any doubt
of the legacy being paid, she should allow me to accept him; and if there
is none, what can I do better? In the meantime, we are going about
seeing the sights; but the general mourning is a great drawback on the
splendour of gaiety. It ends, however, next Sunday; and then the ladies,
like the spring flowers, will be all in full blossom. I was with the
Argents at the opera on Saturday last, and it far surpassed my ideas of
grandeur. But the singing was not good--I never could make out the end
or the beginning of a song, and it was drowned with the violins; the
scenery, however, was lovely; but I must not say a word about the
dancers, only that the females behaved in a manner so shocking, that I
could scarcely believe it was possible for the delicacy of our sex to do.
They are, however, all foreigners, who are, you know, naturally of a
licentious character, especially the French women.

We have taken an elegant house in Baker Street, where we go on Monday
next, and our own new carriage is to be home in the course of the week.
All this, which has been done by the advice of Mrs. Argent, gives my
mother great uneasiness, in case anything should yet happen to the
legacy. My brother, however, who knows the law better than her, only
laughs at her fears, and my father has found such a wonderful deal to do
in religion here, that he is quite delighted, and is busy from morning to
night in writing letters, and giving charitable donations. I am soon to
be no less busy, but in another manner. Mrs. Argent has advised us to
get in accomplished masters for me, so that, as soon as we are removed
into our own local habitation, I am to begin with drawing and music, and
the foreign languages. I am not, however, to learn much of the piano;
Mrs. A. thinks it would take up more time than I can now afford; but I am
to be cultivated in my singing, and she is to try if the master that
taught Miss Stephens has an hour to spare--and to use her influence to
persuade him to give it to me, although he only receives pupils for
perfectioning, except they belong to families of distinction.

My brother had a hankering to be made a member of Parliament, and got Mr.
Charles Argent to speak to my father about it, but neither he nor my
mother would hear of such a thing, which I was very sorry for, as i