d not like a bit to be Mrs Yates after seeing him
look that part so perfectly.]

GREAT RUSSELL STREET, February 24, 1832.
DEAREST H----,

I have this moment received your letter, and though rather
disappointed myself, I am glad you are to see Dorothy as well as
we, so that your visit southward is to be two pleasures instead of
one. The representation of "Francis I." is delayed until next
Wednesday, 7th March; not on account of cholera, but of scenery and
other like theatrical causes of postponement....

I am greatly worried and annoyed about my play. The more I see and
hear of it the stronger my perception grows of its defects, which,
I think, are rendered even more glaring by the curtailments and
alterations necessary for its representation; and the whole thing
distresses me as much as such a thing can. I send you the cast of
the principal characters for the instruction of my Ardgillan
friends, by whose interest about it I am much gratified. My father
is to be De Bourbon; John Mason, the king; Mr. Warde, the monk; Mr.
Bennett, Laval. These are the principal men's parts. I act the
queen-mother; Miss Taylor, Margaret de Valois; and Miss Tree,
Francoise de Foix.

I am reading Cooper's novel of "The Borderers." It is striking and
powerful, and some of it I think very beautiful, especially all
that regards poor Ruth, which, I remember, is what struck you so
much. I like the book extremely. There is a soft sobriety of color
over it all that pleases me, and reminds me of your constant
association of religion and the simple labors of an agricultural
life. It is wonderful how striking the description of this
neutral-tinted existence is, in which life, love, death, and even
this wild warfare with the savage tribes, by which these people
were surrounded, appear divested of all their natural and usual
excitements. Religion alone (and this, of course, was inevitable)
is the one imaginative and enthusiastic element in their existence,
and that alone becomes the source of vehement feeling and
passionate excitement which ought least to admit of fanciful
interpretations and exaggerated and morbid sentiment. But the
picture is admirably well drawn, and I cannot help sometimes
wishing I had lived in those days, and been one o