res is past, and therefore I have always
refused to part with this, because I was sure the next would be a worse.
There is a beauty in youth that every one has once in their lives; and I
remember my mother used to say there was never anybody (that was not
deformed) but were handsome, to some reasonable degree, once between
fourteen and twenty. It must hang with the light on the left hand of it;
and you may keep it if you please till I bring you the original. But
then I must borrow it (for 'tis no more mine, if you like it), because
my brother is often bringing people into my closet where it hangs, to
show them other pictures that are there; and if he miss this long
thence, 'twould trouble his jealous head.

15.

Sir,--

Who would be kind to one that reproaches one so cruelly? Do you think,
in earnest, I could be satisfied the world should think me a dissembler,
full of avarice or ambition? No, you are mistaken; but I'll tell you
what I could suffer, that they should say I married where I had no
inclination, because my friends thought it fit, rather than that I had
run wilfully to my own ruin in pursuit of a fond passion of my own. To
marry for love were no reproachful thing if we did not see that of the
thousand couples that do it, hardly one can be brought for an example
that it may be done and not repented afterwards. Is there anything
thought so indiscreet, or that makes one more contemptible? 'Tis true
that I do firmly believe we should be, as you say, _toujours les
mesmes_; but if (as you confess) 'tis that which hardly happens once in
two ages, we are not to expect the world should discern we were not like
the rest. I'll tell you stories another time, you return them so
handsomely upon me. Well, the next servant I tell you of shall not be
called a whelp, if 'twere not to give you a stick to beat myself with. I
would confess that I looked upon the impudence of this fellow as a
punishment upon me for my over care in avoiding the talk of the world;
yet the case is very different, and no woman shall ever be blamed that
an inconsolable person pretends to her when she gives no allowance to
it, whereas none shall 'scape that owns a passion, though in return of a
person much above her. The little tailor that loved Queen Elizabeth was
suffered to talk out, and none of her Council thought it necessary to
stop his mouth; but the Queen of Sweden's kind letter to the King of
Scots was intercepted by her own ambassador, be