I won't include her. _You_ are _singular_, by
your own confession, on this occasion. And, instead of Christmas
solemnisations, I shall take to reading the Commination Service over you
if you stay any longer at Florence because of the impracticable,
snowed-up roads around Rome. You really might as well object to coming
on account of the heat!...

I thank you very much for meaning to bring my goods for me. I wish I
could have seen your pictures before they took to themselves golden
wings and fled away. Is it true, really, that you think to exhibit in
London Penini's portrait at the piano, as Sophie Eckley tells me? I
shall like to hear that you succeed in that.

I see _her_ every day almost, if not quite. Nobody is like her. And
there are quantities of people here to choose from. I have not taken
heart and 'an evening for reception' yet, but we have had '_squeezes_'
of more or less stringency. Miss Ogle is here--and her family, of
course, for she is young--the author of 'A Lost Love,' that very pretty
book; and she is natural and pleasing. Do you know Lady Oswald, and her
daughter and son? She is Lady Elgin's sister-in-law, and brought a
letter to me from Lady Augusta Bruce. Then the Marshalls found us out
through Mr. De Vere (_her_ cousin), and in the name of Alfred Tennyson
(their intimate friend). Mrs. Marshall was a Miss Spring Rice, and is
very refined in all senses. Refinement expresses the whole woman. Yes,
there are some nice people here--nice people; it's the word. Nobody as
near to me as Mr. Page, whom we often see, I am happy to say, and who
has just presented the world (only _that_ is generally said of the lady)
with a _son_, and is on the point of presenting said world with a Venus.
_Will_ you come to see? I wonder....

I want you here to see a portrait taken of me in chalks by Miss Fox. I
said 'No' to her in London, which was my sole reason for saying 'Yes' to
her in Rome, when she asked me for a patient--or victim. She draws well,
and has been very successful with the hair at least. For the likeness
you shall judge for yourself. She comes here for an hour in the morning
to execute me, and I'm as well as can be expected under it....

May God bless you, dearest Fanny. What Christmas wishes warm from the
heart by heartfuls I throw at you! And say to Ellen Heaton, with cordial
love, that I thank her much for her kind letter, and remember her in all
affectionate wishes made for friends. I shall write to Mr.