Mrs. Siddons; how I wish she was yet in a situation to afford
it the high preferment of her acceptance!

My father has obtained a most unequivocal success in Paris, the
more flattering as it was rather doubtful, and the excellent
Parisians not only received him very well, but forthwith threw
themselves into a headlong _furor_ for Shakespeare and Charles
Kemble, which, although they might not improbably do the same
to-morrow for two dancing dogs, _we_ are quite willing to attribute
to the merits of the poet and his interpreter. The French papers
have been profuse in their praises of both, and some of our own
have quoted their commendations. My mother is, I think, recovering,
though slowly, from her long illness. She is less deaf, and rather
less blind; but for the general state of her health, time, and time
alone, will, I am sure, restore it entirely. I have just seen the
dress that my father had made abroad for his part in my play: a
bright amber-colored _velours epingle_, with a border of rich
silver embroidery; this, together with a cloak of violet velvet
trimmed with imitation sable. The fashion is what you see in all
the pictures and prints of Francis I. My father is very anxious, I
think, to act the play; my mother, to have it published before it
is acted; and I sit and hear it discussed and praised and
criticised, only longing (like a "silly wench," as my mother calls
me when I confess as much to her) to see my father in his lovely
dress and hear the _alarums of my fifth act_.

I am a little mad, I suppose, and my letter a little tipsy, I dare
say, but I am ever your most affectionate

FANNY.

16 ST. JAMES STREET, BUCKINGHAM GATE, WESTMINSTER,
October 21, 1827.
MY DEAR H----,

Your letter was short and sweet, but none the sweeter for being
short. I should have thought no one could have been worse provided
than myself with news or letter chit-chit, and yet I think my
letters are generally longer than yours; brevity, in you, is a
fault; do not be guilty of it again: "car du reste," as Madame de
Sevigne says, "votre style est parfait." John returned to Cambridge
on Thursday night. He is a great loss to me, for thou