125 Gordon Mansions, Gordon Square, W. C. Sept. 15. My darling darling Mother, In a few days you will read in the papers that I am engaged to be married to Lord Darlington. I haven’t said anything to you about this before, because I wanted to make up my own mind entirely for myself. He proposed to me first about two months ago, and though I loved him I wondered if I loved him enough to give up the stage. You don’t know how much I was enjoying being loved by the public. That’s what I wondered if I could give up, not the ambition to become a great actress. But I’ve come to the definite conclusion that I’m not really so very ambitious at all. I think that simple happiness is the best, and my success at the Vanity was really a simple happiness. It was the being surrounded by hundreds of jolly people, every one of whom I liked and who liked me. But I don’t think I should ever want to be a wonderful Lady Macbeth, and thrill people by the actress part of me. I’m not really acting at the Vanity. I’m just being myself and enjoying it. Of course, people might say that if marriage with an earl is simple happiness then simple happiness is merely social ambition. But I assure you that unless I loved Darlington I would not dream of marrying him. He’s not very rich, and apart from the pleasure of being a countess it’s no more than marrying any good-looking, simple, country squire. The only problems for me were first to find out if I loved him as much as I loved the public and being loved by them, and secondly to know if he would agree that all the children should be Catholics. Well, I do know that I love him more than I love the public and I do know that I want his love more than I want the love of the public. And he agreed at once about the children. Thanks to you, darling, I’m not likely to seem particularly out of place in my new part. Perhaps it’s only now that I realise what you’ve done for me all these years. You shall always be proud of me. I do realise too what dear Mother Catherine and the nuns have done for me. I’m writing to her by this post to try to express a little of my gratitude. Darling mother, I’m so happy and I love you so dearly. Your own Letizia. Three days later, the engagement of the beloved Lettie Fuller gave the press one of those romantic stories so dear and so rightly dear to it. Two days after the announcement Nancy received from Caleb Fuller a letter addressed to her care of Miss Lettie Fuller, at the Vanity Theatre.