1835-1837] " Two Old Hens Tales " 267 



hardly write for Snow [just two years old] who is romancing 

 on, and acting, and speechifying, but what it is all about I 

 have not an idea, but " jingle, jingle," conies in very often 

 in the discourse. I have just made out "a large wind blew 

 the little wind down," with a very important shake of the 

 head.) There is wind enough to-day to blow many things 

 down besides little winds. 



Emma Wedgwood to her aunt Madame Sismondi. 



MAER, Friday, Ap. 11 [1835]. 



. . . We have had visits here from Susan Darwin, and the 

 Hollands, so that I have not been at all solitary. I think 

 Susan quite won Allen [Wedgwood]'s heart by her attentions. 

 She was missed one day and nobody could find her any- 

 where, when at last she was discovered sitting very com- 

 fortably with Allen, with a bottle of cowslip wine and some 

 sweetmeats before them. She says Allen coloured up very 

 much when the Colonel's face was seen prying in at the 

 window but she was quite hardened herself. I think she 

 is the happiest person I know, such constant gay spirits 

 and such little things give her so much enjoyment. . . . 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Emma Wedgivood. 



May 3, 1835. 



... I think Anne's Tales particularly interesting ; they both 

 robbed me of some of those precious tears I am so chary of 

 shedding. I prefer the first, there is greater purity and far 

 greater truth. The Admiral's Daughter is deficient in both 

 these qualities, and interesting as it is, I can hardly forgive 

 its immorality. Nevertheless I should like to read more 

 by the same author, and shall be sorry if indeed she is, as 

 she now feels, exhausted. I have received the last Edin- 

 burgh too, and have again and again to thank my beloved 

 Bessy. If she is one-tenth part as prodigal to others as 

 she is to me, she will not reserve for herself enough even 



