 the truth, when you come to know her as well as I do, your opinion will probably coincide with mine.
I assured Mrs. Weldon she might use all manner of freedom, and eagerly enquired if all the family exhibited portraits equally unfavourable.
The eldest daughter, said she, is as proud to the full as her mother, and still more deficient in good humour; but the second, who was scarce twelve years old when I left England, was the sweetest, most enchanting little girl in the world; and I really think resembled you, Miss Seymour, extremely. There was always some person in my head, when I saw you in Languedoc, that you struck me with having a likeness to, and now I recollect it is your cousin, Miss Lucy Dudley. There is another daughter, but she was then quite a child; and there are two sons; the eldest is a very good young

man I am told, but his talents I believe are not shining; the youngest, however, when I last saw him, was a blooming youth of eighteen, captivating as an Adonis, and in all respects amiable and engaging. I hear he has by no means disappointed the hopes inspired by his juvenile perfections, either in point of mind or person, for he is by all accounts a very extraordinary young man, and I have been informed possesses a degree of influence over Lord Belmont, with whom he is at present abroad, which I think you must regard as a favourable circumstance in your situation; for a single glance from either of you must interest him in your cause.
Mrs. Hindon's carriage being at this time announced, we took our leave, and on our return found a card of invitation from Lady Farnford to accompany her to the play to-morrow evening.

DEC. 23.
We were delighted beyond expression last night. The inimitable Mrs. Siddons surpasses all that can either be conceived or described. Added to the most exquisite taste and feeling, she possesses a countenance the most expressive, over which she enjoys a command the most inconceivable.
However pleasing to a person unaccustomed to the glare of a public exhibition, the effect of the company, the various decorations, and the disposition of the different lights, must at first prove, yet the instant the curtain drew up my eyes were immoveably fixed on the stage, nor would it, I imagined, have been in the power of any other object for a moment to have engaged my attention.
I soon found however that Mrs. Siddons,

all powerful as she is, could not wholly engross
