We are all very happy and tolerably merry with the assistance of William
and the young tribe, who are always at his heels and in full chorus with
him. Charlotte _cordials_ me twice a day with _Cecilia_, which she reads
charmingly, and which entertains me as much at the third reading as it
did at the first.
We are a little, but very little afraid of being swallowed up by the
French: they have so much to swallow and digest before they come to us!
They did come once very near to be sure, but they got nothing by it.
_To_ MISS S. RUXTON.