agreeable persons, as well as the best informed and most clever, that I
ever knew. My own pleasure is infinitely increased by seeing that Fanny
and Harriet are so much liked and so very happy here.

In the evenings, in the intervals of good conversation, we have all
sorts of merry plays. Why, when and where: our words were--_Jack, Bar,
Belle, Caste, Plum_, the best.

We acted charades last night. _Pillion_ excellent. Maria, Fanny, and
Harriet, little dear, pretty Bertha, and Mr. Smith, the best hand and
head at these diversions imaginable. First we entered swallowing pills
with great choking: _pill_. Next on all-fours, roaring _lions_; Fanny
and Harriet's roaring devouring lions much clapped. Next Bertha riding
on Mr. Smith's back. _Pillion_.

_Coxcomb_.--Mr. Smith, Mr. Ricardo, Fanny, Harriet, and Maria _crowing_.
Ditto, ditto, _combing_ hair. Mr. Ricardo, solus strutting, a _coxcomb_,
very droll.

_Sinecure_.--Not a good one.

_Monkey_.--Very good. Mr. Ricardo and Mr. Smith as monks, with coloured
silk handkerchiefs, as cowls, a laughable solemn procession. Re-enter
with _keys_. Mr. Ricardo as _monkey_.

_Fortune-tellers_.--The best: Fanny as Fortune; unluckily we forgot to
blind her, and she had only my leather bag for her purse, but
nevertheless, she made a beautiful graceful _Fortune_, and scattered her
riches with an air that charmed the world. 2nd scene: Mr. Smith and
Harriet _tellers_ of the house--"the ayes have it." Fanny, Maria, and