rful charm for me--and read, and read on, though I have read it
many a time through before, and though I had been acting Bianca,
and my supper was on my plate before me.

I heard the other day mention of another work of yours, since the
Shakespeare book. If you are not weary of writing to me, with such
long intervals between your question and my reply, tell me
something of this new work in your next letter.

Our plans for the summer are yet unsettled.... I was much
disappointed on arriving here to find that Dr. Channing has left
Boston for the South. His health is completely broken, and the
bleak and bitter east wind that blows perpetually here is a
formidable enemy to life, even in stronger frames than his....

The hotel in which we are lodging here is immediately opposite the
box-office, and it is a matter of some agreeable edification to me
to see the crowds gathering round the doors for hours before they
open, and then rushing in, to the imminent peril of life and limb,
pushing and pommeling and belaboring one another like madmen. Some
of the lower class of purchasers, inspired by the thrifty desire
for gain said to be a New England characteristic, sell these
tickets, which they buy at the box-office price, at an enormous
advance, and smear their clothes with treacle and sugar and other
abominations, to secure, from the fear of their contact of all
decently-clad competitors, freer access to the box-keeper. To
prevent, if possible, these malpractices, and secure, to ourselves
and the managers of the theater any such surplus profit as may be
honestly come by, the proprietors have determined to put the boxes
up to auction and sell the tickets to the highest bidders. It was
rather barbarous of me, I think, upon reflection, to stand at the
window while all this riot was going on, laughing at the fun; for
not a wretch found his way in that did not come out rubbing his
back or his elbow, or showing some grievous damage done to his
garments. The opposite window of my room looks out upon a
churchyard and a burial-ground; the reflections suggested by the
contrast between the two prospects are not otherwise than
edifying.... Good-by; God bless you!

I am ever yours, most truly,
FA