'Awful things were to be expected about Italy,' quotha! Now do be good, and write and tell me what your plans are for the winter.

We shall remain here till May, and then, if God pleases, go north--to Paris and London.

Robert and I are at work on our books.

I have taken to ass's milk to counteract the tramontana, and he is in the twenty-first and I in the twenty-second volume of Alexandre Dumas's 'Memoirs.' The book is _un peu hasarde_ occasionally, as might be expected, but extremely interesting, and I really must recommend it to your attention for the winter if you don't know it already.
We have seen a good deal of Mrs.Sartoris lately on her way to Rome (Adelaide Kemble)--eloquent in talk and song, a most brilliant woman, and noble.

She must be saddened since then, poor thing, by her father's death.