quite
incomprehensible. He stood with his arms wildly spread abroad,
stuttering, sputtering, madly ejaculating and gesticulating, but
not one articulate word could he get out. I thought I should have
exploded with laughter, but as the woman said who saw the murder,
"I knew I mustn't (faint), and I didn't." With this trifling
exception it all went off very well. Either I was fagged with my
morning's ride or the constitution of the gallery is bad for the
voice; I never felt so exhausted with the mere effort of speaking,
and thought I should have died prematurely and in earnest in the
last scene, I was so tired. When it was over we adjourned with Lord
and Lady Francis and the whole _dramatis personae_ to Mrs. W----'s
magnificent house and splendid supper....

While we were at table everybody suddenly stood up, my mother and
myself reverently with the rest, when the whole company drank my
health, and I collapsed down into my chair as red and as _limp_ as
a skein of scarlet wool, and my mother with some confusion
expressed my obligation and her own surprise at the compliment. I
talked a good deal to Captain Shelley, who is a nice lad, and,
considering his beauty, and the admiration bestowed on him by all
the fine ladies in London, remarkably unaffected. We are asked down
to Oaklands again, and I hope my work at the theater will allow of
my going. What a shocking mess those young gentlemen actors did
make of their greenroom this evening, to be sure! rouge, swords,
wine, mustaches, soda water, and cloaks strewed in every direction.
I wonder what they would say to the drawing-room decorum of our
Covent Garden greenroom.

_Thursday, May 26th._--Tried on dresses with Mrs. Phillips, and
talked all the while about the characteristics of Shakespeare's
women with Mrs. Jameson, who had come to see me. I pity her from
the bottom of my heart; she has a heavy burden to carry, poor
woman.... Went in the evening to rather a dull dinner, after which,
however, I had the pleasure of hearing Mrs. Frere sing, which she
did very charmingly, and so as quite to justify her great society
musical reputation. After our dinner at the F----s' we went to Mrs.
W----'s evening party, where I sat alone, heard somebody sing a
song, was introduced to a man, spoke incoherently to s