quently affection.--I
thought also, that if you were obliged to stay three months at H--, I
might as well have been with you.--Well! well, what signifies what I
brooded over--Let us now be friends!

I shall probably receive a letter from you to-day, sealing my pardon--and
I will be careful not to torment you with my querulous humours, at
least, till I see you again. Act as circumstances direct, and I will not
enquire when they will permit you to return, convinced that you will
hasten to your * * * *, when you have attained (or lost sight of) the
object of your journey.

What a picture have you sketched of our fire-side! Yes, my love, my fancy
was instantly at work, and I found my head on your shoulder, whilst my
eyes were fixed on the little creatures that were clinging about your
knees. I did not absolutely determine that there should be six--if you
have not set your heart on this round number.

I am going to dine with Mrs. ----. I have not been to visit her since the
first day she came to Paris. I wish indeed to be out in the air as much
as I can; for the exercise I have taken these two or three days past,
has been of such service to me, that I hope shortly to tell you, that I
am quite well. I have scarcely slept before last night, and then not
much.--The two Mrs. ------s have been very anxious and tender.

Yours truly

* * * *

I need not desire you to give the colonel a good bottle of wine.

* * * * *

LETTER XV.

Sunday Morning.

I WROTE to you yesterday, my ----; but, finding that the colonel is still
detained (for his passport was forgotten at the office yesterday) I am
not willing to let so many days elapse without your hearing from me,
after having talked of illness and apprehensions.

I cannot boast of being quite recovered, yet I am (I must use my
Yorkshire phrase; for, when my heart is warm, pop come the expressions of
childhood into my head) so _lightsome_, that I think it will not _go
badly with me_.--And nothing shall be wanting on my part, I assure you;
for I am urged on, not only by an enlivened affection for you, but by a
new-born tenderness that plays cheerly round my dilating heart.

I was therefore, in defiance of cold and dirt, out in the air the greater
part of yesterday; and, if I get over this evening without a return of
the fever that has tormented me, I shall talk no more of illness. I have
promised the little creature, that its mother, who ought t