r,
"Lady Fanny's" face and figure were suddenly photographed on my
brain. Her dark and beautiful smooth hair was most becomingly
dressed in two broad plaited loops, hanging low on the back of the
neck; the front hair in bands according to the prevailing fashion.
Her eyes were dark and very lustrous. Her face was freckled, but
this was not disfiguring, as a rich colour in her cheeks showed
itself through them. Her neck, shoulders, and arms were most
beautifully white, and her slim upright figure showed to great
advantage in the neat and simple dress then worn. Hers was of blue
and silver gauze, the bodice prettily trimmed with folds of the
stuff, and the sleeves short and rather full. I think she wore an
enamelled necklet of green and gold. Mama [15] long afterwards told
me that at this dinner she went through a very embarrassing moment;
Papa asked her what wine she would have, and she, just saying the
first thing that came into her head, replied, "Oh, champagne."
There was none. Papa was sadly disconcerted, and replied humbly,
"Will hock do?" I used to take much interest at all times in Papa's
dinner-parties, and sometimes suggested what I considered suitable
guests. I was much disappointed when I found my selection of Madame
Vestris and O'Connell did not altogether commend itself to Papa.

[13] Lady Harriet Elliot, sister of Lady John Russell.

[14] Lord John Russell.

[15] The second Lady John Russell.

Mrs. Drummond, in another letter to Lady Agatha Russell, alluding to a
visit to Minto before Lord John Russell's second marriage, writes:

Mama [then Lady Fanny Elliot] was very kind to me even then, and I
took to her very much. I used to admire her bright eyes and her
beautiful and very abundant dark hair, which was always exceedingly
glossy, and her lovely throat, which was the whitest possible--also
her sprightly ways, for she was very lively and engaging.

The winter of 1840 was spent between the Admiralty and Putney House, which
the Mintos had taken. Lady Fanny's description of Putney sounds to us now
improbably idyllic:

Out almost till bedtime--the river at night so lovely, so calm,
still, undisturbed by anything except now and then a slow,
sleepy-looking barge, gliding so smoothly along as hardly to make a
ripple. The last few nights we have had a little crescent moon to
add to the bea