in doubt whether it would not
be good policy to seem to dislike the match, in order to secure her
consent: there is something very pleasing to a young girl, in opposing
the will of her father.

To speak truth, I am a little out of humor with her at present, for
having contributed, and I believe entirely from a spirit of opposition
to me, to break a match on which I had extremely set my heart; the
lady was the niece of my particular friend, and one of the most
lovely and deserving women I ever knew: the gentleman very worthy, with
an agreable, indeed a very handsome person, and a fortune which with
those who know the world, would have compensated for the want of most
other advantages.

The fair lady, after an engagement of two years, took a whim that
there was no happiness in marriage without being madly in love, and
that her passion was not sufficiently romantic; in which piece of folly
my rebel encouraged her, and the affair broke off in a manner which has
brought on her the imputation of having given way to an idle
prepossession in favor of another.

Your Lordship will excuse my talking on a subject very near my
heart, though uninteresting to you; I have too often experienced your
Lordship's indulgence to doubt it on this occasion: your good-natured
philosophy will tell you, much fewer people talk or write to amuse or
inform their friends, than to give way to the feelings of their own
hearts, or indulge the governing passion of the moment.

In my next, I will endeavor in the best manner I can, to obey your
Lordship's commands in regard to the political and religious state of
Canada: I will make a point of getting the best information possible;
what I have yet seen, has been only the surface.

I have the honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's &c.
William Fermor.

LETTER 88.

To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

Silleri, March 16, Monday.

Your brother is come back; and has been here: he came after dinner
yesterday. My Emily is more than woman; I am proud of her behaviour:
he entered with his usual impatient air; she received him with a
dignity which astonished me, and disconcerted him: there was a cool
dispassionate indifference in her whole manner, which I saw cut his
vanity to the quick, and for which he was by no means prepared.

On such an occasion I should have flirted violently with some other
man, and have shewed plainly I was piqued: she judged much better; I
have only to