BALLS, PARTIES, &c.
About a week after my dresses were made, my mother said that we were
going to the opera that night, and the opera was going to be "Robert
le Diable." Oh! how glad I was; I almost went out my wits for joy, for
now I knew that I should see some most splendid things. I was dressed
in a blue silk, with an opera cloak and hood; my mother was dressed
so also. At last we came to the opera. Oh, how my heart beat! After
sitting a little while, the musicians began to play. Oh! such music; I
felt as if I never wanted to go home, but wanted to stay there all my
life. My mother then told me to hark and try to hear a little bell that
would ring very soon. I listened, and in a minute I heard it ring, and
then ring again, and then the curtain was pulled up. The most beautiful
singing that ever I heard was sung that night. I felt as if I was above
the clouds, and listening to angels instead of mortals. By and by the
curtain came down, and then my mother told me that was the end of the
opera, but there was to be a ballet soon. I now had an opportunity
to look round the house. The place was immense, and was filled with
people. I never saw so many before in all my life, and I never could
have believed that so many persons could be got into one place. Pretty
soon we had the ballet, and if I was pleased with the singing I was
still more so with the dancing. The ballet was "La Sylphide," and
Taglioni took the principal part. We got home about one o'clock, and
I laid till ten the next morning, I was so sleepy. In a couple of
weeks my mother took me to the Earl of Egmont's ball, where we had a
most superb supper. There were about six hundred persons there, and I
passed a most delightful night. I got home at twelve o'clock. I thanked
my mother next morning for all her kindness to me, and she told me in
the future that I should accompany her to all the balls she went to.
So I went to a great many balls and parties, to which I owe my present
polished manners. Even in the midst of their gaiety I had not forgotten
my mother Emma Arthurst, and my sister Ellen, and was on the point
of asking my present mother to let me go and see them, when she came
running into the room and said, "Dear Josey, here is a letter for you
from your last mother Emma." It ran thus:--