february.

this will be a quick return for yours, my dear cassandra. i doubt its having much else to recommend it; but there is no saying: it may turn out to be a very long and delightful letter. i am exceedingly pleased that you can say what you do, after[184] having gone through the whole work, and fanny's praise is very gratifying. my hopes were tolerably strong of her, but nothing like a certainty. her liking darcy and elizabeth is enough. she might hate all the others, if she would. i have her opinion under her own hand this morning; but your transcript of it, which i read first, was not, and is not, the less acceptable. to me it is of course all praise, but the more exact truth which she sends you is good enough.... our party on wednesday was not unagreeable, though we wanted a master of the house less anxious and fidgety, and more conversable. upon mrs. ——'s mentioning that she had sent the rejected addresses to mrs. h., i began talking to her a little about them, and expressed my hope of their having amused her. her answer was, "oh dear, yes, very much, very droll indeed, the opening of the house, and the striking up of the fiddles!" what she meant, poor woman, who shall say? i sought no farther. as soon as a whist-party was formed, and a round table threatened, i made my mother an excuse and came away, leaving just as many for their round table as there were at mrs. grant's.[16] i wish they might be as agreeable a set. my mother is very well, and finds great amusement in glove-knitting, and at present wants[185] no other work. we quite run over with books. she has got sir john carr's "travels in spain," and i am reading a society octavo, an "essay on the military police and institutions of the british empire," by capt. pasley of the engineers,—a book which i protested against at first, but which upon trial i find delightfully written and highly entertaining. i am as much in love with the author as i ever was with clarkson or buchanan, or even the two mr. smiths of the city. the first soldier i ever sighed for; but he does write with extraordinary force and spirit. yesterday, moreover, brought us "mrs. grant's letters," with mr. white's compliments; but i have disposed of them, compliments and all, to miss p., and amongst so many readers or retainers of books as we have in chawton, i dare say there will be no difficulty in getting rid of them for another fortnight, if necessary. i have disposed of mrs. grant for the second fortnight to mrs. ——. it can make no difference to her which of the twenty-six fortnights in the year the three vols. lie on her table. i have been applied to for information as to the oath taken in former times of bell, book, and candle, but have none to give. perhaps you may be able to learn something of its origin where you now are. ladies who read those enormous great stupid thick quarto volumes which one always sees in the breakfast-parlor there must be[186] acquainted with everything in the world. i detest a quarto. captain pasley's book is too good for their society. they will not understand a man who condenses his thoughts into an octavo. i have learned from sir j. carr that there is no government house at gibraltar. i must alter it to the commissioner's.