I am heartily obliged to my dear Sophy--never mind, you need not turn to the direction, it _is_ to Margaret, my dear, though it begins with thanks to Sophy--for being in such haste to relieve my mind from the agony it was in that _Fashionable Tales_ should reach my aunt. I cannot by any form of words express how delighted I am that you are none of you angry with me, and that my uncle and aunt are pleased with what they have read of "The Absentee." I long to hear whether their favour continues to the end and extends to the catastrophe, that dangerous rock upon which poor authors, even after a prosperous voyage, are wrecked, sometimes while their friends are actually hailing them from the shore. I have the _Rosamond_ vase [Footnote: A glass vase which Miss Edgeworth painted for Mrs. Ruxton, in brown, from Flaxman's designs for the _Odyssey._] madness so strong upon me, that I am out of my dear bed regularly at half-past seven in the morning, and never find it more than half an hour till breakfast time, so happy am I daubing. On one side I have Ulysses longing to taste Circe's cakes, but saying, "No, thank you," like a very good boy: and on the other side I have him just come home, and the old nurse washing his feet, and his queen fast asleep in her chair by a lamp, which I hope will not set her on fire, though it is, in spite of my best endeavours, so much out of the perpendicular that nothing but a miracle can keep it from falling on Penelope's crown. Little Pakenham is going on bravely (not two months old), and I am just _beginning_ to write again, and am _in_ "Patronage," and have corrected all the faults you pointed out to me; and Susan, who was a fool, is now Rosamond and a wit. I suppose you have heard various _jeux d'esprit_ on the marriage of Sir Humphry Davy and Mrs. Apreece? I scarcely think any of them worth copying: the best _idea_ is stolen from the _bon mot_ on Sir John Carr, "The Traveller be_k_nighted." "When Mr. Davy concluded his last Lecture by saying that we were but in the _Dawn_ of Science, he probably did not expect to be so soon be_k_nighted." I forget the lines: the following I recollect better:-- To the famed widow vainly bow Church, Army, Bar, and Navy; Says she, I dare not take a vow, But I will take my Davy. Another my father thinks is better: Too many men have often seen Their talents underrated; But Davy owns that his have been Duly _Appreec_iated. _Aug 22._