it must be remembered, for
Vanessa's private perusal. It is to be regretted, for her own sake, that
she did not destroy it.

Swift received the reward of his services to the Government--the
Deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin--in April 1713. Disappointed at what he
regarded as exile, he left London in June. Vanessa immediately began to
send him letters which brought home to him the extent of her passion;
and she hinted at jealousy in the words, "If you are very happy, it is
ill-natured of you not to tell me so, except 'tis what is inconsistent
with my own." In his reply Swift dwelt upon the dreariness of his
surroundings at Laracor, and reminded her that he had said he would
endeavour to forget everything in England, and would write as seldom as
he could.

Swift was back again in the political strife in London in September,
taking Oxford's part in the quarrel between that statesman and
Bolingbroke. On the fall of the Tories at the death of Queen Anne, he
saw that all was over, and retired to Ireland, not to return again
for twelve years. In the meantime the intimacy with Vanessa had been
renewed. Her mother had died, leaving debts, and she pressed Swift for
advice in the management of her affairs. When she suggested coming to
Ireland, where she had property, he told her that if she took this
step he would "see her very seldom." However, she took up her abode at
Celbridge, only a few miles from Dublin. Swift gave her many cautions,
out of "the perfect esteem and friendship" he felt for her, but he often
visited her. She was dissatisfied, however, begging him to speak kindly,
and at least to counterfeit his former indulgent friendship. "What can
be wrong," she wrote, "in seeing and advising an unhappy young woman?
You cannot but know that your frowns make my life unsupportable."
Sometimes he treated the matter lightly; sometimes he showed annoyance;
sometimes he assured her of his esteem and love, but urged her not
to make herself or him "unhappy by imaginations." He was uniformly
unsuccessful in stopping Vanessa's importunity. He endeavoured, she
said, by severities to force her from him; she knew she was the cause of
uneasy reflections to him; but nothing would lessen her "inexpressible
passion."

Unfortunately he failed--partly no doubt from mistaken considerations
of kindness, partly because he shrank from losing her affection--to take
effective steps to put an end to Vanessa's hopes. It would have been
better if he