MRS. CARTER TO MISS TALBOT.

Deal, May 24, four in the morning.

I HAVE a strong inclination, dear Miss Talbot, to visit you like an apparition at this unseasonable hour, which I may safely indulge as it will do you no harm, for I may talk to you as long as I please, without any danger of disturbing your slumbers, or depriving you of an agreeable dream.

I thought myself infinitely obliged to you for your Letter, though I feel some little scruples about answering one part of it, for as there are but very few people in the world to whom I would so unwillingly appear in a ridiculous light, 'tis very odd I should acquaint you with a folly, which I have had prudence enough to conceal from all the world besides. However if you can have any curiosity about so insignificant a person as I, it will give me pleasure to gratify it, and laugh at me as much as you think proper, if you will laugh by yourself.

The splenetic fit of which you enquire the cause, was occasioned by some apprehensions, that a person for whom I have a great love was going to be married; and as I have read in a book, that people when they marry are dead and buried to all former attachments; I could not think of resigning

a friend

a friendship which constitutes some of the brightest intervals of my life, without a very severe uneasi→ ness; for to converse with her in the dull, formal, indifferent way of a common acquaintance, was a change I could not think of with any degree of temper. Now you have set me upon the history of my own nonsense, arm yourself with patience, for you must hear it out in all its instances, one of which was, that I might have been freed in a minute from the pain which this groundless suspicion gavė me, if I had told her of it; but a certain vile ob stinacy which I endeavoured to persuade myself was a laudable pride, prevented my asking her any questions, and I detested the thoughts of getting information by any more indirect means, so unless she had penetration enough to discover my uneasiness, and so much good-nature as to deliver me from it, I should have wrought myself into a firm belief that the affair was quite certain; and by this time you might have heard of my being run wild into a wood, and hopping about from tree to tree like a squirrel, and feeding on nuts and acorns, Whether you will laugh at, or pity me most for this strange delicacy of friendship I cannot tell, but as I have so honestly confessed all my weakness, I hope you will have the charity to give me your advice how to conquer it, against the calamity should, as it will

in

in all probability some time or other, befal me in good earnest.

I

As I imagine you are by this time in the country, congratulate you on the fine weather, which is so necessary to make it agreeable. I hope you are perfectly sensible to all the charms of a South West wind, which surely blows from Paradise, and brings with it all the sweets of the garden of Eden. I shall long to hear some account of your rural amusements; for my own part I am at present engaged in a very eager, and I may add a violent pursuit of health. I get up at four, read for an hour, then set forth a walking, and without vanity I may pretend to be one of the best walkers of the age. I had at first engaged three or four poor souls to their sorrow in this ambulatory scheme, and 'tis not to be told the tracts of land we rambled over; but I happen to be much too volatile for my suffering fellow-travellers, who come panting and grumbling at a considerable distance, and labor along like Christian climbing up the hill difficulty, till at length they quite sink into the slough of despond. (Have you ever read "Pilgrim's Progress?") I often divert myself by proposing in the midst of my walk to call at places a dozen miles off, to hear the universal squall they set up, that I intend to be the death of them. Terrible are the descriptions that they give at our return, of the mischiefs occasioned

by

by my impetuous rapidity, though I protest I do not know of any harm I have done, except pulling. up a few trees by the roots, carrying off the sails of a windmill, and over-setting half a dozen straggling cottages that stood in my way.

My sister has desired to be excused going with me any more, till she has learnt to fly, and another of our troop sent me word last night she could not possibly venture, as our last walk had absolutely dislocated all her bones; so I have nobody to depend on now but my youngest sister, who is as strong as a little Welch horse; so she trudges after me with great alacrity, and promises never to forsake me if I should walk to the North pole. As we daily improve in this peripatetic way of living, I propose to do myself the pleasure of breakfasting with you some morning in Oxfordshire, from whence I shall proceed to dine with Miss Ward in London, drink tea with Miss Lynch in Canterbury, and dream of you all the same night at Deal.

I don't know what to say to you next, for I am quite weary of talking of myself, unless I entertain you with the sweetly flowing syllables of Kietlenski, Wilkousti, Lawoyski, &c. a set of Polish officers who were taken by an English man of war, and brought prisoners here. I have often seen them, for they can find nobody to understand, or converse with them here but my father. 'Tis quite

quite diverting to hear what a confusion of languages there is among them. One talks Latin, another French, a third Polish, a fourth high Dutch, and a fifth something that sounds like no language at all. But what entertained me most, was to hear one of them who is a great disputant, talk for a considerable time about religion in French, to a person who understood not one word of the language, and she making replies and quotations in English, which he understood just as little; sq no doubt the discourse tended much to the edification of both. I was going to say a great deal more to you, but luckily my sister came in and told me, whoever I was writing such an unmerciful Letter to, would never have patience to read it; so I e'en follow her adinonition, and conclude, &c.

MISS TALBOT TO MRS. CARTER.

Cuddesden, June 27, 1744.

I HOPE you are sensible, my dear Miss Carter, that I have taken due time to consider what consolatory advice I can give you, in case the calamity you seem so apprehensive of should happen, and your unfaithful friend forsake the society of us

spinsters,