ning?" "Sit with my father, or remain alone," said I.
"Ah!" cried the society-loving little lady, with an exasperated Irish
accent, "come out of that _sphare_ of solitary self-sufficiency _ye_
live in, do! Come to me!" Which objurgation certainly presented in a
most ludicrous light my life of very sad seclusion, and sent us both
into fits of laughter.

I have alluded to a friendship which I formed soon after my appearance
on the stage with Miss E---- F----. She was the daughter of Mr. F----,
for many years member for Tiverton. Miss F---- and I perpetuated a close
attachment already traditional between our families, her mother having
been Mrs. Siddons's dearest friend. Indeed, for many years of her life,
Mrs. F---- seems to me to have postponed the claims even of her husband
and children upon her time and attention, to her absolute devotion to
her celebrated idol. Mr. F---- was a dutiful member of the House of
Commons, and I suppose his boy was at school and his girl too young to
demand her mother's constant care and superintendence, at the time when
she literally gave up the whole of her existence to Mrs. Siddons during
the London season, passing her days in her society and her evenings in
her dressing-room at the theater, whenever Mrs. Siddons acted. Miss
F---- and myself could not dedicate ourselves with any such absolute
exclusiveness to each other. Neither of our mothers would have consented
to any such absorbing arrangement, for which a certain independence of
family ties would have been indispensable; but within the limits which
our circumstances allowed we were as devoted to each other as my aunt
Siddons and Mrs. F---- had been, and our intercourse was as full and
frequent as possible. E---- F---- was not pretty, but her face was
expressive of both intelligence and sensibility; her figure wanted
height, but was slender and graceful; her head was too small for
powerful though not far keen and sagacious intellect, or for beauty. The
general impression she produced was that of well-born and well-bred
refinement, and she was as eager, light, and rapid in her movements as a
greyhound, of which elegant animal the whole character of her appearance
constantly reminded me.

Mr. F---- had a summer residence close to the picturesque town of
Southampton, called Bannisters, the name of which charming place calls
up the image of my friend swinging in her hammock under the fine trees
of her lawn, or dexterously managing her bo