My third dress, my own
favorite, was made exactly like the first, the ample skirt gathered
all round into the stomacher body; the material was white satin,
trimmed with old point lace and Roman pearls, with a most beautiful
crimson velvet hat, a perfect Rubens, with one sweeping white
feather falling over it....
We are spending our holiday of Passion week here for the sake of a
little quiet and fresh air; we had intended going to Dover, but
were prevented. You ask me after my mother: she is pretty well now,
but her health is extremely uncertain, and her spirits, which are
likewise very variable, have so much influence over it that her
condition fluctuates constantly; she has been very well, though,
for the last few days. London, I think, never agrees with her, and
we have been racketing to such a degree that quiet had become not
only desirable but necessary. Thank you for wishing me plenty of
dancing. I have abundance of it, and like it extremely; but I fear
I am very unreasonable about it, for my conscience smote me the
other day when I came to consider that the night before, although
my mother had stayed at a ball with me till three in the morning, I
was by no means gracious in my obedience to her request that I
should spare myself for my work.
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