ed October 2nd, calls on Temple to
come down to Kent, to Peyton's house; and it is reasonable to suppose
that at this interview all was practically settled to the satisfaction
of those two who were most deeply concerned in the negotiation.

I did so promise myself a letter on Friday that I am very angry I had it
not, though I know you were not come to town when it should have been
writ. But did not you tell me you should not stay above a day or two?
What is it that has kept you longer? I am pleased, though, that you are
out of the power of so uncertain things as the winds and the sea, which
I never feared for myself, but did extremely apprehend for you. You will
find a packet of letters to read, and maybe have met with them already.
If you have, you are so tired that 'tis but reasonable I should spare
you in this. For, [to] say truth, I have not time to make this longer;
besides that if I had, my pen is so very good that it writes an
invisible hand, I think; I am sure I cannot read it myself. If your eyes
are better, you will find that I intended to assure you I am

Yours.

_Letter 69._

I am but newly waked out of an unquiet sleep, and I find it so late that
if I write at all it must be now. Some company that was here last night
kept us up till three o'clock, and then we lay three in a bed, which was
all the same to me as if we had not gone to bed at all. Since dinner
they are all gone, and our company with them part of the way, and with
much ado I got to be excused, that I might recover a little sleep, but
am so moped yet that, sure, this letter will be nonsense.

I would fain tell you, though, that your father is mistaken, and that
you are not, if you believe that I have all the kindness and tenderness
for you my heart is capable of. Let me assure you (whatever your father
thinks) that had you L20,000 a year I could love you no more than I do,
and should be far from showing it so much lest it should look like a
desire of your fortune, which, as to myself, I value as little as
anybody in the world, and in this age of changes; but certainly I know
what an estate is. I have seen my father's reduced, better than L4000,
to not L400 a year, and I thank God I never felt the change in anything
that I thought necessary. I never wanted, nor am confident I never
shall. But yet, I would not be thought so inconsiderate a person as not
to remember that it is expected from all people that have sense that
they should act