are but on you? Sweet quarreller, you know this. What afternoon have I spent from you? Or whom did you ever see me fpeak to without distaste, when it prevented my talking with you?

You know how often you have cautioned me not to speak to you before your uncle; and you know he was there. But you do well to abufe me for being too obedient to your commands; for, I promise you, you shall never get any other caufe. I thought it most prudent to be feen talking with another, when it was my business not fo much as to look at you. Mifs Peacock is a very old acquaintance she knows my perfect devotion to you, and the very well knew all that civility and earnestness of difcourfe about nothing, was pretended. I write to you before I come, because you commanded me; but I will make you afk my pardon in a few minutes for robbing me of those few which might have been paffed with you, and which it has taken to write this letter. My fweeteft quarreller, I am coming to you. After this never doubt but that I am, Your's, moft truly

LETTER XII.

From a gentleman to a lady, whom he accufes of inconftancy.

Madam,

γου

OU must not be surprised at a letter in the place of a vifit, from one who cannot but have reason to believe it may eafily be as welcome as his company.

You should not fuppofe, if lovers have loft their fight, that their fenfes are all banished: and if I refuse to believe my eyes, when they fhow me your inconftancy, you must not wonder that I cannot flop my ears against the accounts of it. Pray let us understand one another properly; for I am afraid we are deceiving ourselves all this while. Am I a perfon whom you efteem, whofe fortune you do not defpife, and whofe pretenfions you

encour

encourage ? or am I a troublesome coxcomb, who fancies myfelf particularly received by a woman who only laughs at me? If I am the latter, you treat me as I deferve; and I ought to join with you in faying I deferve it but if it be otherwife, and you receive me, as I think you do, as a perfon you intend to marry, (for it is best to be plain on thefe occafions), for Heaven's fake, what is the meaning of that univerfal coquetry in public, where every fool flatters you, and you are pleased with the meaneft of them? And what can be the meaning that I am told you, last night in particular, was an hour with Mr Marlow, and are fo wherever you meet him, if I am not in company? Both of us, Madam, you cannot think of; and I should be forry to imagine that, when I had given you my heart fo entirely, I fhared your's with any body.

I have faid a great deal too much to you, and yet I am tempted to fay more: but I fhall be filent. I beg you will answer this, and I think I have a right to expect that you do it generously and fairly. Do not mif"take what is the effect of the difiraction of my heart for want of refpect to you. While I write this, I dote upon you, but I cannot bear to be deceived where all my happiness is centered. Your most unhappy, &c.

LETTER XIII.

From a lady to her lover, who fufpected her of receiving the addreffes of another, in anfwer to the above.

IF

SIR,

F I did not make all the allowances you defire in the end of your letter, I fhould not answer you at all. But although I am really unhappy to find you are fo, and the more to find myself to be the occafion, I can hardly impute the unkindness and incivility of your letter to the fingle cause you would have me. However, as I would not be suspected of any thing that thould juftify fuch treatment from you, I think it neceffary to in

form

form you, that what you have heard has no more foundation than what you have feen: However, I wonder that other eyes fhould not be as easily alarmed as yours; for, instead of being blind, believe me, Sir, you fee more than there is. Perhaps, however, their fight may be as much fharpened by unprovoked malice as yours by undeferved fufpicion.

Whatever may be the end of this difpute, (for I do not think fo lightly of lovers' quarrels as many do), I think it proper to inform you, that I never have thought favourably of any one but yourself; and I fhall add, that, if the fault of your temper, which I once little fufpected, fhould make me fear you too much to marry, you will not fee me in that state with any other, nor courted by any man in the world.

I did not know that the gaiety of my temper gave you uneafinefs; and you ought to have told me of it with lefs feverity. If I am particular in it, I am afraid it is a fault in my natural difpofition: but I would have taken fome pains to get the better of that, if I had known it was difagreeable to you. I ought to refent this treatment more than I do, but do not infult my weakness on that head; for a fault of that kind would want the excufe this has for my pardon, and might not be fo cafily overlooked, though I should wish to do it. I fhould say, I will not fee you to day, but you have an advocate that pleads for you much better than you do for yourself. I defire you will firft look carefully over this letter, for my whole heart is in it, and then come to me.

Your's, &c.

LETTER XIV.

From a young tradefman to a lady, whom he had feen in public.

Madam,

P

ERHAPS you will not be furprised to receive a letter from a perfon who is unknown to you, when you

reflect

reflect how likely fo charming a face may be to create impertinence; and I perfuade myself that, when you remember where you fat last night at the play-house, you will not need to be told this comes from the person who was just before you.

In the first place, Madam, I ask pardon for the liberty I then took of looking at you, and for the greater liberty I now take in writing to you. But, after this, I beg leave to fay, that my thoughts are honourable, and to inform you who I am; I fhall not pretend to be any better: I keep a fhop, Madam, in Henrietta-street and, though but two years in trade, I have a tolerable cuftom. I do not doubt but it will increase, and I shall be able to do fomething for a family. If your inclinations are not engaged, I should be very proud of the honour of waiting on you; and, in the mean time, if you pleafe to defire any friend to ask my character in the neighbourhood, I believe it will not prejudice you against, Madam,

Your most humble fervant.

LETTER XV.

From a relation of the lady, in anfwer to the above.

SIR,

TH

HERE has come into my hands a letter, which you wrote to Mifs M. Stebbing. She is a relation of mine, and is a very good girl; and I dare fay you will not think the worse of her for confulting her friends in fuch an affair as that you wrote about: befides, a woman could not well anfwer fuch a letter herfelf, unlefs it was with a full refufal, and that she would have been wrong to have done, until she knew fomething of the perfon that wrote it, as wrong as to have encouraged him.

You seem very fincere and open in your defigns; and as you gave permiffion to enquire about you among your neighbours, I, being her nearest friend, did that for her. I have heard a very good account of you; and, from all

that

that I fee, you may be very fuitable for one, another. She has fome fortune; and I shall tell you farther, that fhe took notice of you at the play, and does not feem perfectly averfe to feeing you in the presence of Your humble fervant,

From a lover who had caufe of difpleafure, and determines never to fee the lady again.

Madam,

THE

HERE was a time, when, if any one should have told me that I fhould ever have written to you fuch a letter as I am now writing, I would as foon have believed that the earth would have burft afunder, or that I fhould fee ftars falling to the ground, or trees and mountains rifing to the heavens. But there is nothing too ftrange to happen. One thing would have appeared yet more impoffible than my writing it, which is, that you fhould have given me the cause to have written it, and yet that has happened.

The purpofe of this is to tell you, Madam, that I fhall never wait on you again. You will truly know what I make myself fuffer when I impofe this command upon my own heart; but I would not tell you of it, if it were not too much determined for me to have a poffibility of changing my refolution.

It gives me fome pleasure, that you will feel no uneafinefs for this, though I fhould alfo have been very averfe fome time ago even to have imagined that; but you know where to employ that attention of which I am not worthy the whole, and with a part I fhall not be contented. I was a witnefs, Madam, yesterday, of your behaviour to Mr Henley. I had often been told of this, but I have refufed to liften to it. I fuppofed your heart no more capable of deceit than my own: but I cannot disbelieve