with whom she conversed; and she would never have so
easily ended by bringing them to herself, had she not always begun
by going to them. This habit was so familiar, this movement so
natural to her, that, at the close of every correspondence, we have
before our eyes the physiognomy of the correspondent as distinctly
outlined as the physiognomy of the writer:

"Did you believe me, my dear Roxandra, when I mechanically said, on
leaving you, that I should write to you only after five or six clays?
I knew not what I said at the time. If you begin to know me a little,
you have seen that I could never hear so long a silence. La Bruyere
has said, How difficult it is to be satisfied with any one! Ah! well,
my friend, I am satisfied with you; and, were it not for my extreme
self-distrust, which nourishes so many inquietudes, I should be
almost tranquil, almost happy, almost reasonable. My friend, this
moment I receive your letter: how can I thank you? Ah! read my
grateful heart; and sometimes tell me, that you wish to keep it, in
order that it may become worthy of you." "I feel so deeply the
happiness of being loved by you, that you can never cease to love
me." "I need to know all your thoughts, to follow all your motions,
and can find no other occupation so sweet and so dear." "My heart is
so full of you, that, since we parted, I have thought of nothing but
writing to you." "I see in your soul as if it were my own." "Dear
Roxandra, you are every way a privileged being: you unite the
advantages of the most opposed characters without any of their
inconveniences." "My attachment for you will, without doubt, be a
consolation; but that word, when not unmeaning, is so sad that I
desire my friendship to fulfil higher offices. I often envy
characters whose impressions are slight and transient. The sponge
passes across the slate, and nothing is left. Perhaps such a nature
best agrees with man, whose pleasures are for a moment, whose pains
for a life. Adieu, my friend! How many times already that word has
filled my heart with grief! Take good care of yourself; hasten to
God; and, when the struggle is too severe, beseech grace instead of
combating." "It seems to me that souls seek each other in the chaos
of this world, like elements of the same nature tending to re-unite.
They touch, they feel themselves tallied; confidence is established
without an assignable cause. Reason and reflection following, and
fixing the seal of their approval