decline it.]

* * * * *

LETTER 188. TO MR. MOORE.

"I suppose, by your non-appearance, that the phil_a_sophy of my
note, and the previous silence of the writer, have put or kept you
in _humeur_. Never mind--it is hardly worth while.

"This day have I received information from my man of law of the
_non_--and never likely to be--performance of purchase by Mr.
Claughton, of _im_pecuniary memory. He don't know what to do, or when
to pay; and so all my hopes and worldly projects and prospects are
gone to the devil. He (the purchaser, and the devil too, for aught
I care,) and I, and my legal advisers, are to meet to-morrow, the
said purchaser having first taken special care to enquire 'whether
I would meet him with temper?'--Certainly. The question is this--I
shall either have the estate back, which is as good as ruin, or I
shall go on with him dawdling, which is rather worse. I have
brought my pigs to a Mussulman market. If I had but a wife now, and
children, of whose paternity I entertained doubts, I should be
happy, or rather fortunate, as Candide or Scarmentado. In the mean
time, if you don't come and see me, I shall think that Sam.'s bank
is broke too; and that you, having assets there, are despairing of
more than a piastre in the pound for your dividend. Ever," &c.

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

"July 11. 1814.

"You shall have one of the pictures. I wish you to send the proof
of 'Lara' to Mr. Moore, 33. Bury Street, _to-night_, as he leaves
town to-morrow, and wishes to see it before he goes[40]; and I am
also willing to have the benefit of his remarks. Yours," &c.

[Footnote 40: In a note which I wrote to him, before starting, next day,
I find the following:--"I got Lara at three o'clock this morning--read
him before I slept, and was enraptured. I take the proofs with me."]

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

"July 18. 1814.

"I think _you_ will be satisfied even to _repletion_ with our
northern friends[41], and I won't deprive you longer of what I
think will give you pleasure; for my own part, my modesty, or my
vanity, must be silent.

"P.S. If you could spare it for an hour in the evening, I wish you
to send it up to Mrs. Leigh, your neighbour, at the London Hotel,