nd prattling in
little half caressing sentences, as a mother might babble over her
first child. Pedantic writers have professed to find in Swift's use of
this "little language" the coming shadow of that insanity which struck
him down in his old age.

As it is, these letters are among the curiosities of amatory
correspondence. When Swift writes "oo" for "you," and "deelest" for
"dearest," and "vely" for "very," there is no need of an interpreter;
but "rettle" for "let ter," "dallars" for "girls," and "givar" for
"devil," are at first rather difficult to guess. Then there is a system
of abbreviating. "Md" means "my dear," "Ppt" means "poppet," and
"Pdfr," with which Swift sometimes signed his epistles, "poor, dear,
foolish rogue."

The letters reveal how very closely the two were bound together, yet
still there was no talk of marriage. On one occasion, after they had
been together for three years in Ireland, Stella might have married
another man. This was a friend of Swift's, one Dr. Tisdall, who made
energetic love to the sweet-faced English girl. Tisdall accused Swift
of poisoning Stella's mind against him. Swift replied that such was not
the case. He said that no feelings of his own would ever lead him to
influence the girl if she preferred another.

It is quite sure, then, that Stella clung wholly to Swift, and cared
nothing for the proffered love of any other man. Thus through the years
the relations of the two remained unchanged, until in 1710 Swift left
Ireland and appeared as a very brilliant figure in the London
drawing-rooms of the great Tory leaders of the day.

He was now a man of mark, because of his ability as a controversialist.
He had learned the manners of the world, and he carried him self with
an air of power which impressed all those who met him. Among these
persons was a Miss Hester--or Esther--Vanhomrigh, the daughter of a
rather wealthy widow who was living in London at that time. Miss
Vanhomrigh--a name which she and her mother pronounced "Vanmeury"--was
then seventeen years of age, or twelve years younger than the patient
Stella.

Esther Johnson, through her long acquaintance with Swift, and from his
confidence in her, had come to treat him almost as an intellectual
equal. She knew all his moods, some of which were very difficult, and
she bore them all; though when he was most tyrannous she became only
passive, waiting, with a woman's wisdom, for the tempest to blow over.

Miss Vanhomrigh,