end--impossible that there
could be a friendship better calculated for duration.

I must, however, take the liberty to blame Miss Howe for her behaviour
to Mr. Hickman. And I infer from it, that even women of sense are not
to be trusted with power.

By the way, I am sure I need not desire you not to communicate to this
fervent young lady the liberties I have taken with her character.

I dare say my cousin could not approve of Miss Howe's behaviour to this
gentleman; a behaviour which is talked of by as many as know Mr. Hickman
and her. Can a wise young lady be easy under such censure? She must
know it.

Mr. Hickman is really a very worthy man. Every body speaks well of him.
But he is gentle-dispositioned, and he adores Miss Howe; and love admits
not of an air of even due dignity to the object of it. Yet will Mr.
Hickman hardly ever get back the reins he has yielded up; unless she, by
carrying too far the power of which she seems at present too sensible,
should, when she has no favours to confer which he has not a right to
demand, provoke him to throw off the too-heavy yoke. And should he do
so, and then treat her with negligence, Miss Howe, of all the women I
know, will be the least able to support herself under it. She will then
be more unhappy than she ever made him; for a man who is uneasy at home,
can divert himself abroad; which a woman cannot so easily do, without
scandal.--Permit me to take farther notice, as to Miss Howe, that it is
very obvious to me, that she has, by her haughty behaviour to this worthy
man, involved herself in one difficulty, from which she knows not how to
extricate herself with that grace which accompanies all her actions. She
intends to have Mr. Hickman. I believe she does not dislike him. And it
will cost her no small pains to descend from the elevation she has
climbed to.

Another inconvenience she will suffer from her having taught every body
(for she is above disguise) to think, by her treatment of Mr. Hickman,
much more meanly of him than he deserves to be thought of. And must she
not suffer dishonour in his dishonour?

Mrs. Howe is much disturbed at her daughter's behaviour to the gentleman.
He is very deservedly a favourite of her's. But [another failing in Miss
Howe] her mother has not all the authority with her that a mother ought
to have. Miss Howe is indeed a woman of fine sense; but it requires a
high degree of good understanding, as well as a sweet and gentle