dieu for a moment.

Eleven o'clock.

She has shewn me Mrs. Melmoth's letter on the subject of concluding
the marriage immediately: it is in the true spirit of family
impertinence. She writes with the kind discreet insolence of a
relation; and Emily has answered her with the genuine spirit of an
independent Englishwoman, who is so happy as to be her own mistress,
and who is therefore determined to think for herself.

She has refused going to Montreal at all this winter; and has
hinted, though not impolitely, that she wants no guardian of her
conduct but herself; adding a compliment to my ladyship's discretion so
very civil, it is impossible for me to repeat it with decency.

O Heavens! your brother and Fitzgerald! I fly. The dear creatures!
my life has been absolute vegetation since they absented themselves.

Adieu! my dear,
Your faithful
A. Fermor.

LETTER 56.

To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

Silleri, Jan. 24.

We have the same parties and amusements we used to have, my dear,
but there is by no means the same spirit in them; constraint and
dullness seem to have taken the place of that sweet vivacity and
confidence which made our little society so pleasing: this odious man
has infected us all; he seems rather a spy on our pleasures than a
partaker of them; he is more an antidote to joy than a tall maiden
aunt.

I wish he would go; I say spontaneously every time I see him,
without considering I am impolite, "La! Sir George, when do you go to
Montreal?" He reddens, and gives me a peevish answer; and I then, and
not before, recollect how very impertinent the question is.

But pray, my dear, because he has no taste for social companionable
life, has he therefore a right to damp the spirit of it in those that
have? I intend to consult some learned casuist on this head.

He takes amazing pains to please in his way, is curled, powdered,
perfumed, and exhibits every day in a new suit of embroidery; but with
all this, has the mortification to see your brother please more in a
plain coat. I am lazy. Adieu!

Yours, ever and ever,
A. Fermor.

LETTER 57.

To John Temple, Esq; Pall Mall.

Jan. 25.

So you intend, my dear Jack, to marry when you are quite tired of a
life of gallantry: the lady will be much obliged to you for a heart,
the refuse of half the prostitutes in town; a heart, the best feelings
of which will be entirely obliterated; a heart hardened by