t had
come from Scotland; and at last ordered me to write to Mr. Cranstoun
not to return to Henley, till his affair with Miss Murray was quite
decided. I complied with this order, writing to him in the terms
prescribed me. To this I received an answer full of tenderness, grief,
and despair. He said, "He found my father loved him no longer, and was
afraid he would inspire me with the same sentiments. He saw," he said,
"a coolness throughout my whole letter; but conjured me to remember
the sacred promises and engagements that had passed between us." After
this, I received several other letters from him, filled with the same
sort of expostulation; and penned in the same desponding and
disconsolate strain. I likewise received several letters from his
mother, the old Lady Cranstoun, and Mrs. Selby, his sister, wrote in a
most affectionate style.

In April, or the beginning of May, 1751, as I apprehend, I had another
letter from Mr. Cranstoun, wherein he acquainted me, that he had seen
his old friend, Mrs. Morgan; and that if he could procure any more of
her powder, he would send it with the Scotch pebbles he intended to
make me a present of. In answer to this, I told him, "I was surprised
that a man of his sense could believe such efficacy to be lodged in
any powder whatsoever; and that I would not give it my father, lest it
should impair his health." To this, in his next letter, he replied,
"That he was extremely surprised I should believe he would send any
thing that might prove prejudicial to my father, when his own interest
was so apparently concerned in his preservation." I took this as
referring to a conversation we had had a little before he set out for
Scotland; wherein I told him, "I was sure my father was not a man of a
very considerable fortune; but that if he lived, I was persuaded he
would provide very handsomely for us and ours, as he lived so retired,
and his business was every day increasing." So far was I from
imagining, that I should be a gainer by my father's death, as has been
so maliciously and uncharitably suggested! Mr. Cranstoun also seemed
most cordially and sincerely to join with me in the same notion. Soon
after this, in another letter, he informed me, "That some of the
aforesaid powder should be sent with the Scotch pebbles he intended
me; and that he should write upon the paper in which the powder was
contained, 'powder to clean Scotch pebbles,' lest, if he gave it its
true name, the box should