dsome or very ugly. For God's sake, when we
meet, let us design one day to remember old stories in, to ask one
another by what degrees our friendship grew to this height 'tis at. In
earnest, I am lost sometimes with thinking on't; and though I can never
repent the share you have in my heart, I know not whether I gave it you
willingly or not at first. No, to speak ingenuously, I think you got an
interest there a good while before I thought you had any, and it grew so
insensibly, and yet so fast, that all the traverses it has met with
since has served rather to discover it to me than at all to hinder it.
By this confession you will see I am past all disguise with you, and
that you have reason to be satisfied with knowing as much of my heart as
I do myself. Will the kindness of this letter excuse the shortness on't?
For I have twenty more, I think, to write, and the hopes I had of
receiving one from you last night kept me writing this when I had more
time; or if all this will not satisfy, make your own conditions, so you
do not return it me by the shortness of yours. Your servant kisses your
hands, and I am

Your faithful.

_Letter 35._--This is written on the back of a letter of Sir Thomas
Peyton to Dorothy, and is probably a postscript to _Letter 34_. Sir
Thomas's letter is a good example of the stilted letter-writing in vogue
at that time, which Dorothy tells us was so much admired. The affairs
that are troubling him are legal matters in connection with his
brother-in-law Henry Oxenden's estate. There is a multitude of letters
in the MSS. in the British Museum referring to this business; but we are
not greatly concerned with Oxenden's financial difficulties. Sir Edward
Hales was a gentleman of noble family in Kent. There is one of the same
name who in 1688 declares himself openly to be a Papist, and is tried
under the Test Act. He is concerned in the same year in the escape of
King James, providing him with a fishing-boat to carry him into France.
This is in all probability the Sir Edward Hales referred to by Sir
Thomas Peyton, unless it be a son of the same name. Here is the
letter:--

"Good sister,--I am very sorry to hear the loss of our good brother,
whose short time gives us a sad example of our frail condition. But I
will not say the loss, knowing whom I write to, whose religion and
wisdom is a present stay to support in all worldly accidents.

"'Tis long since we resolved to have given you a visit, and ha