nd pleasing young
man, however, behaves with great propriety to his
father, and great kindness to his brothers and
sisters, and we must forgive his thinking more of
grouse and partridges than lakes and mountains.

* * * * *

In this house there is a constant succession of
small events, somebody is always going or coming;
this morning we had Edward Bridges unexpectedly to
breakfast with us, on his way from Ramsgate, where
is his wife, to Lenham, where is his church, and
to-morrow he dines and sleeps here on his return.
They have been all the summer at Ramsgate for her
health; she is a poor honey--the sort of woman who
gives me the idea of being determined never to be
well and who likes her spasms and nervousness, and
the consequence they give her, better than
anything else. This is an ill-natured statement to
send all over the Baltic. The Mr. Knatchbulls,
dear Mrs. Knight's brothers, dined here the other
day. They came from the Friars, which is still on
their hands. The elder made many inquiries after
you. Mr. Sherer is quite a new Mr. Sherer to me; I
heard him for the first time last Sunday, and he
gave us an excellent sermon, a little too eager
sometimes in his delivery, but that is to me a
better extreme than the want of animation,
especially when it evidently comes from the heart,
as in him. The clerk is as much like you as ever.
I am always glad to see him on that account. But
the Sherers are going away. He has a bad curate at
Westwell, whom he can eject only by residing there
himself. He goes nominally for three years, and a
Mr. Paget is to have the curacy of Godmersham; a
married man, with a very musical wife, which I
hope may make her a desirable acquaintance to
Fanny.

I thank you very warmly for your kind consent to
my application,[267] and the kind hint which
followed it. I was previously aware of what I
should be laying myself open to; but the truth is
that the secret has spread so far as to be
scarcely the shadow of a secret now, and that, I
believe, whenev