22 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
they take upon themselves the awful responsibilities 
of matrimony. Is it not? Take care, my dear, how you 
involve yourself in such a slough of despond. Won’t 
you? By the way I heard a very funny report the 
other day concerning who do you think? — Why, 
your stately self and your harum-scarum cousin 
Lizzie. You did not know that this good-natured 
world, which is so fond of giving away what does not 
belong to it, has given you and me to each other. Shall 
I confirm the idea? Pray write me word — perhaps it 
would be better to bring out our engagement at once 
before you return — do inform me of your wishes on 
this subject. 
You little wretch! how dare you be going to the 
opera every night when you know that I am pining 
here at home for the sounds which you have been 
hearing all winter. Oh! if I could spend one whole 
evening in the Italian opera house at Paris and hear 
the finest European singers, I do think that at the end 
of it I should be perfectly content to die on the spot. 
What bliss could exceed it? 
Do you know (as of course you don’t know) that 
we had the most delightful party at the Cushings’ the 
other day. Don’t you think the millennium must be 
coming when Mr. Cushing gives a party? I must tell 
you, to explain this wonder, that there has been a Pole 
here lately, called Kowsowski, who plays most de- 
lightfully on the piano. All the world have been dis- 
tracted about him, and as the Cushings are very fond 
of music they determined to give him a party. The 
day was expected by their guests with impatience, 
