of all the long draperies; moreover, I "stood
grandly" erect, and put off the "sidelong stoop" in favor of a more
heroic and statue-like deportment. Oh, H----, I am exceedingly
happy, _et pour peu de chose_, perhaps you will think: my father
has given me leave to have riding lessons, so that I shall be in
right earnest "an angel on horseback," and when I come to Ardgillan
(and it won't be long first) I shall make you mount upon a horse
and gallop over the sand with me; won't you, my dear? Believe me
ever your affectionate

FANNY.

The words in inverted commas at the end of this letter had reference to
some strictures Miss S---- had made upon my carriage, and to a family
joke against me in consequence of my having once said, in speaking of my
desire to ride, that I should not care to be an angel in heaven unless I
could be an "angel on horseback." My invariable description of a woman
riding was "a happy woman," and after much experience of unhappiness,
certainly not dissipated by equestrian exercise, I still agree with
Wordsworth that "the horse and rider are a happy pair." After acting the
Grecian Daughter for some time I altered my attitude in the last scene,
after the murder of Dionysius, more to my own satisfaction: instead of
dropping the arm that held the dagger by my side, I raised the weapon to
heaven, as if appealing to the gods for justification and tendering
them, as it were, the homage of my deed; of course I still continued to
vail my eyes and turn my head away from the sight of my victim.

JAMES STREET, BUCKINGHAM GATE, Saturday, February 20th.
DEAREST H----,

I need hardly apologize to you for my long silence, for I am sure
that you will have understood it to have proceeded from no want of
inclination on my part to answer your last, but from really not
having had half an hour at my command in which to do so. I have
thought, too (although that has not prevented my writing), much
upon the tenor of your letter, and the evident depression it was
written in, and I hardly know how to resolve: whether I ought not
to forbear wearying you with matters which every way are discordant
with your own thoughts and feelings, or whether it is better, by
inducing you to answer me, to give you some motive, however
trifling, for exertion. Dearest