ADMIRALTY, June 11, 1841

You must be longing so ardently for post-day that I hate to think of the uncomfortable letter this is likely to be; but as Fanny is writing to you herself, my letter will be of less consequence.  Oh the volumes and volumes I could write and long to write and the wee miserable things that I do write!  I must at once begin by saying that Fanny’s happy face would, more than all I can write, convince you how perfectly satisfied and proud she is of the position she has put herself in; how it delights her to think of the son-in-law she has given to your Father, and the friend she has given your brothers.  To me he is everything that my proudest wishes could have sought out for Fanny.  You know as well as me that it was not an ordinary person that could suit her; and it really is balm to my heart to see the way in which he treasures every word she says, and laughs at the innocence and simplicity of her remarks, and looks at her with such pride when he sees her keen and eager about the great and interesting events of the day, which most girls would neither know nor care about.  I don’t mean that he is absurd in his admiration of her, but it is evident how fully he appreciates the singular beauty of her character.  In short, to sum up all I can say of him, he is in many respects a counterpart of herself.  She is very open and at her ease with him, and I am quite as much at my ease with him as I was with Ralph....

    From Lady Mary Abercromby to Lord John Russell

    GENOA, June 19, 1841

...  You will every day discover more the great worth of what you have won.  You cannot have known her long without admiring the extreme truth and purity of her mind; it is sensitive to a degree which those with more of worldly experience can scarcely understand, yet I feel sure you will watch over it, for it has a charm to those who can appreciate it which must make them dread to see it disturbed.  It is a great privation to me to be so little acquainted with you, but believe me I cannot think of you as a stranger now that you belong to my dearest Sister, and that I look to you for her happiness.  If you could think of me as a sister and treat me as such it would be a delight to me.

    ADMIRALTY, June 18, 1841

    Very happy day—­every day now happier than the one before.  Oh will
    it—­can it last?  O God, enable me to thank Thee as I ought—­to live
    a life of gratitude to Thee.

CHAPTER III

1841

“He served his country well in choosing thee.” [20]

[20] From a sonnet to Lady John Russell by Lord Wriothesley Russel, written after reading Lady Minto’s ballad in which these words occur:  “His country and thee.”

Parliament had been dissolved soon after Peel’s motion of a want of confidence had been carried.  In the election which followed Lord John was returned for the City of London on June 30th.