us causes received rather a painful impression
instead of the very different one I had anticipated. Her divine labor of
love had become _famous_, and fine ladies of fashion pressed eagerly to
accompany her, or be present at the Newgate exhortations. The
unfortunate women she addressed were ranged opposite their less
excusable sister sinners of the better class, and I hardly dared to look
at them, so entirely did I feel out of my place by the side of Mrs. Fry,
and so sick for their degraded attitude and position. If I had been
alone with them and their noble teacher I would assuredly have gone and
sat down among them. On the day I was there a poor creature sat in the
midst of the congregation attired differently from all the others, who
was pointed out to me as being under sentence of transportation for
whatever crime she committed. Altogether I felt broken-hearted for
_them_ and ashamed for _us_.]

My mother has had a letter from my father (he was acting in the
provinces), who says he has met and shaken hands with Mr. Harris
(his co-proprietor of Covent Garden, and antagonist in our ruinous
lawsuit about it). I wonder what benefit is to be expected from
that operation with--such a person.

_Sunday, June 5th._ ... On my return from afternoon service found
Mr. Walpole with my mother; they amused me extremely by a
conversation in which they ran over, as far as their memories would
stretch (near sixty years), the various fashions and absurd modes
of dress which have prevailed during that period. Toupees, fetes,
toques, bouffantes, hoops, bell hoops, sacques, polonaises,
levites, and all the paraphernalia of horsehair, powder, pomatum,
and pins, in the days when court beauties had their heads dressed
over-night for the next day's drawing-room, and sat up in their
chairs for fear of destroying the edifice by lying down. No wonder
they were obliged to rouge themselves--the days when once in a
fortnight was considered often enough for ridding the hair of its
horrible paste of flour and grease. We are certainly cleaner than
our grandmothers, and much more comfortable, though it is not so
long since my own head was dressed _a la giraffe_, in three bows
over pins half a foot high, so that I could not sit upright in the
carriage without knocking against the top of it. My mother's and
Mr. Walpole's recollections and de