was shocked at
the great difference in the merit of her performance. Every
particle of careful elaboration and fine detail of workmanship was
gone; the business of the piece was hurried through, with
reference, of course, only to the time in which it could be
achieved; and of Madame Ristori's once fine delineation of the
character, which, when I first saw it, atoned for the little merit
of the piece itself, nothing remained but the broad claptrap points
in the several principal situations, made coarse, and not nearly
even as striking, by the absence of due preparation and working up
to them, the careless rendering of everything else, and the
slurring over of the finer minutiae and more delicate indications of
the whole character. It was a very sad spectacle to me.]

Besides your letter, the poor old _Pacific_ (the ship that brought
us to America) brought me something else to-day. While Washington
Irving was sitting with me, a message came from the mate of the
_Pacific_ with a large box of mould for me. I had it brought in,
and asking Irving if he knew what it was, "A bit of the old soil,"
said he; and that it was.... Washington Irving was sure to have
guessed right as to my treasure, and I was not ashamed to greet it
with tears before him.... He is so sensible, sound, and
straightforward in his way of seeing everything, and at the same
time so full of hopefulness, so simple, unaffected, true, and good,
that it is a privilege to converse with him, for which one is the
wiser, the happier and the better....

Here is Monday, April 15th, Boston, my dear H----. We arrived here
yesterday evening, and in the course of this morning I have already
received fourteen visitors, all of whom I shall have to go and
waste my time with in return for their kind waste of theirs upon
me.... To-morrow I begin my work with "Fazio" and go to a party
afterward....

Tuesday, 16th.

... This morning I have been to rehearsal, and out shopping, and
received crowds of strangers who come and call upon us.... To-night
I make my first appearance here in "Fazio," and we hear the theater
will be crammed, and I am going to a party after that dreadful
play; not by way of delight, but of duty, and a severe one it will
be.