Page:Mrs. Siddons (IA mrssiddons00kennrich).pdf/226

214 known only so short a time. The following is a specimen:—

"Holyhead, Sunday, 12 o'clock.

"For some hours we had scarce a breath of wind, and the vessel seemed to leave your coast as unwillingly as your poor friend. About six o'clock this morning the snowy tops of the mountains appeared; they chilled my heart, for I felt that they were emblematic of the cold and dreary prospect before me. Mr. has been very obliging; he has just left us, but it is probable we shall meet again upon the road. I thought you would be glad to know we were safely landed. I will hope, my beloved friends, for a renewal of the days we have known, and in the meantime endeavour to amuse and cheer my melancholy with the recollection of past joys, though they be 'sweet and mournful to the soul.'

"God bless you all, and do not forget "Your faithful, affectionate, "S. ."

A little later she writes:—

"Pray ask Mr. G to send me those sweet lines 'To Hope'—that which he gave me is almost effaced by my tears—and let it be written by the same hand. I could never describe what I have lost in you, my beloved friends, and the sweet angel that is gone for ever! Good God! what a deprivation in a few days. Adieu! Adieu!"

Needless to say, this "screeching" friendship ended as one might expect. As we have said, she failed to obtain an engagement for Mrs. Galindo at Covent Garden, and lent Galindo a thousand pounds to help