to with pleasure. If you were surprised at reading the {p.214}
important billet, you may guess how agreeably I was so at
receiving it; for I had, to anticipate disappointment, struggled
to suppress every rising gleam of hope; and it would be very
difficult to describe the mixed feelings her letter occasioned,
which, _entre nous_, terminated in a very hearty fit of crying. I
read over her epistle about ten times a day, and always with new
admiration of her generosity and candor--and as often take shame
to myself for the mean suspicions, which, after knowing her so
long, I could listen to, while endeavoring to guess how she would
conduct herself. To tell you the truth, I cannot but confess that
my _amour propre_, which one would expect should have been
exalted, has suffered not a little upon this occasion, through a
sense of my own _unworthiness_, pretty similar to that which
afflicted Linton upon sitting down at Keir's table. I ought
perhaps to tell you, what indeed you will perceive from her
letter, that I was always attentive, while consulting with you
upon the subject of my declaration, rather to under-than
over-rate the extent of our intimacy. By the way, I must not omit
mentioning the respect in which I hold your knowledge of the fair
sex, and your capacity of advising in these matters, since it
certainly is to your encouragement that I owe the present
situation of my affairs. I wish to God, that, since you have
acted as so useful an auxiliary during my attack, which has
succeeded in bringing the enemy to terms, you would next sit down
before some fortress yourself, and were it as impregnable as the
rock of Gibraltar, I should, notwithstanding, have the highest
expectations of your final success. Not a line from poor
Jack--What can he be doing? Moping, I suppose, about some
watering-place, and deluging his guts with specifics of every
kind--or lowering and snorting in one corner of a post-chaise,
with Kennedy, as upright and cold as a poker, stuck into the
other. As for Linton, and Crab, I anticipate with pleasure their
marvellous adventures, in the course of which Dr. {p.215}
Black's _self-denying ordinance_ will run a shrewd chance of
being neglected.[118] They will be a source of fun for the winter
evening conversations. Methinks I see