esteem herself, if by the utmost assiduity, and constant
exertion of her poor abilities, she shall be able
to lessen, though hopeless ever to discharge, the vast
debt she owes the public."
Mrs. Siddons was always too fond of taking the public into her confidence. Everything in this letter can be taken for granted; and it would have been more dignified to have kept silence.
More pleasing and natural are the letters written to her friends. She wrote thus to Dr. Whalley about this time:—
"Just at this moment are you, my dear Sir, sitting down to supper, and 'every guest's a friend.' Oh! that I were with you, but for one half-hour. 'Oh! God forbid!' says my dear Mrs. Whalley; 'for he would talk so loud and so fast, that he would throw himself into a fever, and die of unsatisfied curiosity into the bargain.' Do I flatter myself, my dear Sir? Oh no! you have both done me the honour to assure me that you love me, and I would not forego the blessed idea for the world . . . I did receive all your letters, and thank you for them a thousand times. One line of them is worth all the acclamations of ten thousand shouting theatres."
And so closes this wonderful year in the great actress's life—the one to which she always looked back as the climax of her happiness and good fortune.
