ou strangely. And yet you cannot wonder at it; the constant
desire I have to hear from you, and the satisfaction your letters give
me, would oblige one that has less time to write often. But yet I know
what 'tis to be in the town. I could never write a letter from thence in
my life of above a dozen lines; and though I see as little company as
anybody that comes there, yet I always met with something or other that
kept me idle. Therefore I can excuse it, though you do not exactly pay
all that you owe, upon condition you shall tell me when I see you all
that you should have writ if you had had time, and all that you can
imagine to say to a person that is

Your faithful friend.

_Letter 31._--Dorothy is in mourning for her youngest brother, Robert,
who died about this time. As she does not mention his death to Temple,
we may take it that he was, though her brother, practically a stranger
to her, living away from Chicksands, and rarely visiting her.

General Monk's brother, to whom Dorothy refers, was Mr. Nicholas Monk,
vicar of Kelkhampton, in Cornwall. General Monk's misfortune is no less
a calamity than his marriage. The following extract from Guizot's _Life
of Monk_ will fully explain the allusion: "The return of the new admiral
[Monk] was marked by a domestic event which was not without its
influence on his public conduct and reputation. Unrefined tastes, and
that need of repose in his private life which usually accompanies
activity in public affairs, had consigned him to the dominion of a woman
of low character, destitute even of the charms which seduce, and whose
manners did not belie the rumour which gave her for extraction a market
stall, or even, according to some, a much less respectable profession.
She had lived for some time past with Monk, and united to the influence
of habit an impetuosity of will and words difficult to be resisted by
the tranquil apathy of her lover. It is asserted that she had managed,
as long since as 1649, to force him to a marriage; but this marriage was
most certainly not declared until 1653." M. Guizot then quotes a letter,
dated September 19, 1653, announcing the news of General Monk's
marriage, and this would about correspond with the presumed date of
Dorothy's letter. Greenwich Palace was probably occupied by Monk at this
time, and Dorothy meant to say that Ann Clarges would be as much at home
in Greenwich Palace as, say, the Lord Protector's wife at Whitehall.

SIR,--It was,