s I may call it? Little did the good old viscount think,
when he married his darling, his only daughter, to so well-appearing a
gentleman, and to her own liking too, that she would have been so much
kept down. Another would call your father a tyrant, if I must not: all
the world that know him, do call him so; and if you love your mother,
you should not be very angry at the world for taking that liberty.

Yet, after all, I cannot help thinking, that she is the less to be
pitied, as she may be said (be the gout, or what will, the occasion
of his moroseness) to have long behaved unworthy of her birth and fine
qualities, in yielding so much as she yields to encroaching spirits
[you may confine the reflection to your brother, if it will pain you
to extend it]; and this for the sake of preserving a temporary peace to
herself; which was the less worth endeavouring to preserve, as it always
produced a strength in the will of others, which subjected her to an
arbitrariness that of course grew, and became established, upon her
patience.--And now to give up the most deserving of her children
(against her judgment) a sacrifice to the ambition and selfishness of
the least deserving!--But I fly from this subject--having I fear, said
too much to be forgiven--and yet much less than is in my heart to say
upon the over-meek subject.

Mr. Hickman is expected from London this evening. I have desired him to
inquire after Lovelace's life and conversation in town. If he has not
inquired, I shall be very angry with him. Don't expect a very good
account of either. He is certainly an intriguing wretch, and full of
inventions.

Upon my word, I most heartily despise that sex! I wish they would let
our fathers and mothers alone; teasing them to tease us with their
golden promises, and protestations and settlements, and the rest
of their ostentatious nonsense. How charmingly might you and I live
together, and despise them all!--But to be cajoled, wire-drawn,
and ensnared, like silly birds, into a state of bondage, or vile
subordination; to be courted as princesses for a few weeks, in order to
be treated as slaves for the rest of our lives. Indeed, my dear, as you
say of Solmes, I cannot endure them!--But for your relations [friends no
more will I call them, unworthy as they are even of the other name!]
to take such a wretch's price as that; and to the cutting off of all
reversions from his own family:--How must a mind but commonly just
resist suc