drawn upon him for: he
never sent me any sum before, but one bill of twenty pounds half a year
ago. You are welcome as my blood to every farthing I have in the world;
and all that grieves me is, I am not richer, for MD's sake, as hope
saved.(22) I suppose you give up your lodgings when you go to Wexford;
yet that will be inconvenient too: yet I wish again you were under a
necessity of rambling the country until Michaelmas, faith. No, let them
keep the shelves, with a pox; yet they are exacting people about those
four weeks; or Mrs. Brent may have the shelves, if she please. I am
obliged to your Dean for his kind offer of lending me money. Will that
be enough to say? A hundred people would lend me money, or to any man
who has not the reputation of a squanderer. O, faith, I should be glad
to be in the same kingdom with MD, however, although you are at Wexford.
But I am kept here by a most capricious fate, which I would break
through, if I could do it with decency or honour.--To return without
some mark of distinction would look extremely little; and I would
likewise gladly be somewhat richer than I am. I will say no more, but
beg you to be easy till Fortune take her course, and to believe that
MD's felicity is the great end I aim at in all my pursuits. And so let
us talk no more on this subject, which makes me melancholy, and that
I would fain divert. Believe me, no man breathing at present has less
share of happiness in life than I: I do not say I am unhappy at all, but
that everything here is tasteless to me for want of being as I would
be. And so, a short sigh, and no more of this. Well, come and let's see
what's next, young women. Pox take Mrs. Edgworth and Sterne! I will take
some methods about that box. What orders would you have me give about
the picture? Can't you do with it as if it were your own? No, I hope
Manley will keep his place; for I hear nothing of Sir Thomas Frankland's
losing his. Send nothing under cover to Mr. Addison, but "To Erasmus
Lewis, Esq.; at my Lord Dartmouth's office at Whitehall." Direct your
outside so.--Poor dear Stella, don't write in the dark, nor in the light
neither, but dictate to Dingley; she is a naughty, healthy girl, and may
drudge for both. Are you good company together? and don't you quarrel
too often? Pray love one another, and kiss one another just now, as
Dingley is reading this; for you quarrelled this morning just after Mrs.
Marget(23) had poured water on Stella's head: I h