ask questions, and to
assure you that I am most affectionately yours,
MARY IMLAY.
P. S. _September 20._--Should peace take place this winter, what
say you to a voyage in the spring, if not to see your old
acquaintance, to see Paris, which I think you did not do justice
to. I want you to see my little girl, who is more like a boy. She
is ready to fly away with spirits, and has eloquent health in her
cheeks and eyes. She does not promise to be a beauty, but appears
wonderfully intelligent, and though I am sure she has her father's
quick temper and feelings, her good-humor runs away with all the
credit of my good nursing....
That she had discussed the question of her sisters' prospects with Imlay
seems probable from the fact that while he was in London alone, in
November, 1794, he wrote very affectionately to Eliza, saying,--
"... We shall both of us continue to cherish feelings of
tenderness for you, and a recollection of your unpleasant
situation, and we shall also endeavor to alleviate its distress by
all the means in our power. The present state of our fortune is
rather [word omitted]. However, you must know your sister too well,
and I am sure you judge of that knowledge too favorably, to suppose
that whenever she has it in her power she will not apply some
specific aid to promote your happiness. I shall always be most
happy to receive your letters; but as I shall most likely leave
England the beginning of next week, I will thank you to let me hear
from you as soon as convenient, and tell me ingenuously in what way
I can serve you in any manner or respect...."
But all Mary's efforts to be kind could not soften their resentment. On
the contrary, it was still further increased by the step she took in
their regard on her return to England in the same year. When in France
she had gladly suggested Everina's joining her there; but in London,
after her discovery of Imlay's change of feeling, she naturally shrank
from receiving her or Eliza into her house. Her sorrow was too sacred to
be exposed to their gaze. She was brave enough to tell them not to come
to her, a course of action that few in her place would have had the
courage to pursue. In giving them her reasons for this new determination,
she of course told them but half the truth. To Everina she wrote:--
April 27, 1795.
When yo
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