owerful as kindness, and that I should
give that to yours which all the merit in the world besides would not
draw from me. I spake as if I had not done so already; but you may
choose whether you will believe me or not, for, to say truth, I do not
much believe myself in that point. No, all the kindness I have or ever
had is yours; nor shall I ever repent it so, unless you shall ever
repent yours. Without telling you what the inconveniences of your coming
hither are, you may believe they are considerable, or else I should not
deny you or myself the happiness of seeing one another; and if you dare
trust me where I am equally concerned with you, I shall take hold of the
first opportunity that may either admit you here or bring me nearer you.
Sure you took somebody else for my cousin Peters? I can never believe
her beauty able to smite anybody. I saw her when I was last in town, but
she appear'd wholly the same to me, she was at St. Malo, with all her
innocent good nature too, and asked for you so kindly, that I am sure
she cannot have forgot you; nor do I think she had so much address as to
do it merely in compliment to me. No, you are mistaken certainly; what
should she do amongst all that company, unless she be towards a wedding?
She has been kept at home, poor soul, and suffered so much of purgatory
in this world that she needs not fear it in the next; and yet she is as
merry as ever she was, which perhaps might make her look young, but that
she laughs a little too much, and that will bring wrinkles, they say.
Oh, me! now I talk of laughing, it makes me think of poor Jane. I had a
letter from her the other day; she desired me to present her humble
service to her master,--she did mean you, sure, for she named everybody
else that she owes any service to,--and bid me say that she would keep
her word with him. God knows what you have agreed on together. She tells
me she shall stay long enough there to hear from me once more, and then
she is resolved to come away.

Here is a seal, which pray give Walker to set for me very handsomely,
and not of any of those fashions he made my others, but of something
that may differ from the rest. 'Tis a plain head, but not ill cut, I
think. My eldest brother is now here, and we expect my youngest shortly,
and then we shall be altogether, which I do not think we ever were twice
in our lives. My niece is still with me, but her father threatens to
fetch her away. If I can keep her to Michaelmas