han when we were teased by that conceited animal
Cicipici. This is the way to spell his name, and not Chichipichi; you see
I grow a connoisseur.

'But perhaps I like Miss Bertram more for the accomplishments she wants
than for the knowledge she possesses. She knows nothing of music
whatever, and no more of dancing than is here common to the meanest
peasants, who, by the way, dance with great zeal and spirit. So that I am
instructor in my turn, and she takes with great gratitude lessons from me
upon the harpsichord; and I have even taught her some of La Pique's
steps, and you know he thought me a promising scholar.

'In the evening papa often reads, and I assure you he is the best reader
of poetry you ever heard; not like that actor who made a kind of jumble
between reading and acting,--staring, and bending his brow, and twisting
his face, and gesticulating as if he were on the stage and dressed out in
all his costume. My father's manner is quite different; it is the reading
of a gentleman, who produces effect by feeling, taste, and inflection of
voice, not by action or mummery. Lucy Bertram rides remarkably well, and
I can now accompany her on horseback, having become emboldened by
example. We walk also a good deal in spite of the cold. So, upon the
whole, I have not quite so much time for writing as I used to have.

'Besides, my love, I must really use the apology of all stupid
correspondents, that I have nothing to say. My hopes, my fears, my
anxieties about Brown are of a less interesting cast since I know that he
is at liberty and in health. Besides, I must own I think that by this
time the gentleman might have given me some intimation what he was doing.
Our intercourse may be an imprudent one, but it is not very complimentary
to me that Mr. Vanbeest Brown should be the first to discover that such
is the case, and to break off in consequence. I can promise him that we
might not differ much in opinion should that happen to be his, for I have
sometimes thought I have behaved extremely foolishly in that matter. Yet
I have so good an opinion of poor Brown, that I cannot but think there is
something extraordinary in his silence.

'To return to Lucy Bertram. No, my dearest Matilda, she can never, never
rival you in my regard, so that all your affectionate jealousy on that
account is without foundation. She is, to be sure, a very pretty, a very
sensible, a very affectionate girl, and I think there are few persons to
who