g to make
a purchase; have begged my warmest wishes to her lovely friend, for
whose happiness no one on earth is more anxious; but have told her Sir
George is too much the object of my envy, to expect from me very
sincere congratulations.

Adieu! my servant waits for this. You shall hear an account of my
adventures when I return to Quebec.

Yours,
Ed. Rivers.

LETTER 28.

To Miss Fermor, at Silleri.

Quebec, Oct. 7, twelve o'clock.

I must see you, my dear, this evening; my mind is in an agitation
not to be expressed; a few hours will determine my happiness or misery
for ever; I am displeased with your father for precipitating a
determination which cannot be made with too much caution.

I have a thousand things to say to you, which I can say to no one
else.

Be at home, and alone; I will come to you as soon as dinner is over.

Adieu!
Your affectionate
Emily Montague.

LETTER 29.

To Miss Montague, at Quebec.

I will be at home, my dear, and denied to every body but you.

I pity you, my dear Emily; but I am unable to give you advice.

The world would wonder at your hesitating a moment.

Your faithful
A. Fermor.

LETTER 30.

To Miss Fermor, at Silleri.

Quebec, Oct. 7, three o'clock.

My visit to you is prevented by an event beyond my hopes. Sir George
has this moment a letter from his mother, desiring him earnestly to
postpone his marriage till spring, for some reasons of consequence to
his fortune, with the particulars of which she will acquaint him by the
next packet.

He communicated this intelligence to me with a grave air, but with a
tranquillity not to be described, and I received it with a joy I found
it impossible wholly to conceal.

I have now time to consult both my heart and my reason at leisure,
and to break with him, if necessary, by degrees.

What an escape have I had! I was within four and twenty hours of
either determining to marry a man with whom I fear I have little chance
to be happy, or of breaking with him in a manner that would have
subjected one or both of us to the censures of a prying impertinent
world, whose censures the most steady temper cannot always contemn.

I will own to you, my dear, I every hour have more dread of this
marriage: his present situation has brought his faults into full light.
Captain Clayton, with little more than his commission, was modest,
humble, affable to his i