TEMPLE PLACE 29 



insist upon your getting up a slight rave with me for 

 sympathy's sake, when I return. Tonight we hear 

 II Giuramento once more, and on Friday I go again 

 with the Ruggleses, when they will repeat this opera, 

 or — "bear w4th me, Mrs Porter," it is only a possi- 

 bility — or — Ernani. 



New York, Wednesday night, 11.30 [1844] 

 I MUST add a line, dearest, on my return from the 

 opera to mention that I am just now in that miser- 

 able state of excitement when all seems stale, flat and 

 unprofitable but the scene we left behind. This is the 

 last time we shall hear Giuramento, which adds to my 

 melancholy, and there is a fearful report about tonight 

 that on Friday evening we have Lucia instead of 

 Ernani, on which I had set my heart. 



Mother sends much love to Father, whose letter 

 she was delighted to receive this afternoon. I don't 

 send love to anybody, because after writing every 

 spare moment, I only get blackguarded for my pot- 

 hooks, which, thank Heaven, are appreciated in New 

 York, if not elsewhere. Tell Father and Tom that 

 Aunt Nancy avers, among all the letters she has re- 

 ceived from me she has never had the least diflSculty 

 in deciphering one. Don't let them see this one if they 

 want to ever so much. 



We shall come home on Monday without an escort, 

 if none offers, as we are not in the least timid about 

 taking care of each other. Good-night. 



Your 



Lizzie 



