elen Raeburn, and my Uncle Drummond, and Angus, and Mr Keith,
and the Laird, and Lady Monksburn--and so on and on, till the whole
world seemed full of people to be prayed for.

I suppose it is so always--if we only thought of it!

Grandmamma never noticed my ribbons--or rather my want of them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It really is of no use my trying to keep to dates. I have begun several
times, and I cannot get on with it. That last piece, dated the 23rd,
took me nearly a week to write; so that what was to-morrow when I began,
was behind yesterday before I had finished. I shall just go right on
without any more pother, and put a date now and then when it is very
particular.

Grandmamma has an assembly every week,--Tuesday is her day [Note 1.]--
and now and then an extra one on Thursday or Saturday. I do not think
anything would persuade her to have an assembly, or play cards, on a
Friday. But on a Sunday evening she always has her rubber, to Flora's
horror. It does not startle me, because I remember it always was so
when I lived with her at Carlisle: nor Annas, because she knew people
did such things in the South. I find Grandmamma usually spends the
winter at the Bath: but she has not quite made up her mind whether to go
this year or not, on account of all the tumults in the North. If the
royal army should march on London (and Annas says of course they will)
we may be shut up here for a long while. But Annas says if we heard
anything certain of it, she and Flora would set off at once to "the
island", as she always calls the Isle of Wight.

Last Tuesday, I was sitting by a young lady whom I have talked with more
than once; her name is Newton. I do not quite know how we got on to the
subject, but we began to talk politics. I said I could not understand
why it was, but people in the South did not seem to care for politics
nearly so much as I was accustomed to see done. Half the ladies in the
room appeared to be trimmers; and many more wore the red ribbon alone.
Such people, with us, would never be received into a Tory family.

"We do not take things so seriously as you," said she, with a diverted
look. "That with us is an opinion which with you is an enthusiasm. I
suppose up there, where the sun never shines, you have to make some sort
of noise and fuss to keep yourselves alive."

"`The sun never shines!'" cried I. "Now, really, Miss Newton! You
do