asure in about a
fortnight....

My father took his farewell of the stage last Friday. How much I could
say upon that circumstance alone! The house was immensely full, the
feeling of regret and good-will universal, and our own excitement, as
you may suppose, very great. My father bore it far better than I had
anticipated, and his spirits do not appear to have suffered since; I
know not whether the reaction may not make itself felt hereafter.

Perhaps his present occupation of licenser may afford sufficient
employment of a somewhat kindred nature to prevent his feeling very
severely the loss of his professional excitement; and yet I know not
whether a sufficient _succedaneum_ is to be found for such a dram as
that, taken nightly for more than forty years....

Who do you think Adelaide and I went to dine with last Friday? You will
never guess, so I may as well tell you--the C----s! The meetings in this
world are strange things. She sought me with apparent cordiality, and I
had no reason whatever for avoiding her. She is very handsome, and
appears remarkably amiable, with the simple good breeding of a French
great lady, and the serious earnestness of a devout Roman Catholic. They
are going to Lisbon, where he is attache to the Embassy.

I had a letter from Mr. Combe the other day, full of the books he had
been publishing, and the lectures he had been delivering. He seems to be
very busy, and very happy. [Mr. Combe had lately married my cousin,
Cecilia Siddons.] ...

Farewell, my dearest H----.

I am ever your most affectionate,
F. A. B.

PARK PLACE, ST. JAMES'S, May 13th, 1837.
MY DEAR MRS. JAMESON,

You will never believe I am alive, not sooner to have answered your kind
letter; yet I was grateful for your expressions of regard, and truly
sorry for all you have had to undergo. Certainly the chances of this
life are strange--that you should be in Toronto, and I in London now, is
what neither of us would have imagined a little while ago.

I wish I could think you were either as happy or as well amused as I am.
I hope, however, you have recovered your health, and that you will be
able to visit some of the beautiful scenery of the St. Lawrence this
summer; that, at least, you may have some compensation for your effort
in crossing the Atlantic.

I heard of you from my friend, Miss Sedgwick,