ss with which you write for
them. And then also will we talk about the contents of your last
dispatch, and about some of your severe and unfriendly reflections.

Mean time, whatever thou dost, don't let the wonderful creature leave us!
Set before her the sin of her preparation, as if she thought she could
depart when she pleased. She'll persuade herself, at this rate, that she
has nothing to do, when all is ready, but to lie down, and go to sleep:
and such a lively fancy as her's will make a reality of a jest at any
time.

A jest I call all that has passed between her and me; a mere jest to die
for--For has not her triumph over me, from first to last, been infinitely
greater than her sufferings from me?

Would the sacred regard I have for her purity, even for her personal as
well as intellectual purity, permit, I could prove this as clear as the
sun. Tell, therefore, the dear creature that she must not be wicked in
her piety. There is a too much, as well as too little, even in
righteousness. Perhaps she does not think of that.--Oh! that she would
have permitted my attendance, as obligingly as she does of thine!--The
dear soul used to love humour. I remember the time that she knew how to
smile at a piece of apropos humour. And, let me tell thee, a smile upon
the lips, or a sparkling in the eye, must have had its correspondent
cheerfulness in a heart so sincere as her's.

Tell the doctor I will make over all my possessions, and all my
reversions, to him, if he will but prolong her life for one twelvemonth
to come. But for one twelvemonth, Jack!--He will lose all his reputation
with me, and I shall treat him as Belton did his doctor, if he cannot do
this for me, on so young a subject. But nineteen, Belford!--nineteen
cannot so soon die of grief, if the doctor deserve that title; and so
blooming and so fine a constitution as she had but three or four months
ago!

But what need the doctor to ask her leave to write to her friends? Could
he not have done it without letting her know any thing of the matter?
That was one of the likeliest means that could be thought of to bring
some of them about her, since she is so desirous to see them. At least
it would have induced them to send up her favourite Norton. But these
plaguy solemn fellows are great traders in parade. They'll cram down
your throat their poisonous drugs by wholesale, without asking you a
question; and have the assurance to own it to be prescribing: