declining all these offers of hospitable entertainment (for I had at that time withdrawn myself entirely from society, and went nowhere), she exclaimed, “But what in the world do you do with yourself in the evening?” “Sit with my father, or remain alone,” said I.  “Ah!” cried the society-loving little lady, with an exasperated Irish accent, “come out of that sphare of solitary self-sufficiency ye live in, do!  Come to me!” Which objurgation certainly presented in a most ludicrous light my life of very sad seclusion, and sent us both into fits of laughter.

I have alluded to a friendship which I formed soon after my appearance on the stage with Miss E——­ F——.  She was the daughter of Mr. F——­, for many years member for Tiverton.  Miss F——­ and I perpetuated a close attachment already traditional between our families, her mother having been Mrs. Siddons’s dearest friend.  Indeed, for many years of her life, Mrs. F——­ seems to me to have postponed the claims even of her husband and children upon her time and attention, to her absolute devotion to her celebrated idol.  Mr. F——­ was a dutiful member of the House of Commons, and I suppose his boy was at school and his girl too young to demand her mother’s constant care and superintendence, at the time when she literally gave up the whole of her existence to Mrs. Siddons during the London season, passing her days in her society and her evenings in her dressing-room at the theater, whenever Mrs. Siddons acted.  Miss F——­ and myself could not dedicate ourselves with any such absolute exclusiveness to each other.  Neither of our mothers would have consented to any such absorbing arrangement, for which a certain independence of family ties would have been indispensable; but within the limits which our circumstances allowed we were as devoted to each other as my aunt Siddons and Mrs. F——­ had been, and our intercourse was as full and frequent as possible.  E——­ F——­ was not pretty, but her face was expressive of both intelligence and sensibility; her figure wanted height, but was slender and graceful; her head was too small for powerful though not far keen and sagacious intellect, or for beauty.  The general impression she produced was that of well-born and well-bred refinement, and she was as eager, light, and rapid in her movements as a greyhound, of which elegant animal the whole character of her appearance constantly reminded me.

Mr. F——­ had a summer residence close to the picturesque town of Southampton, called Bannisters, the name of which charming place calls up the image of my friend swinging in her hammock under the fine trees of her lawn, or dexterously managing her boat on its tiny lake, and brings back delightful hours and days spent in happy intercourse with her.  Mr. F——­ had himself planned the house, which was as peculiar as it was comfortable and elegant.  A small vestibule, full of fine casts from the antique (among others a rare original one of the glorious