d volume of "Caleb," and pray _lend_ me a
bit of Indian-rubber. I have lost mine. Should you be obliged to
quit home before the hour I have mentioned, say. You will not
forget that we are to dine at four. I wish to be exact, because I
have promised to let Mary go and assist her brother this afternoon.
I have been tormented all this morning by puss, who has had four or
five fits. I could not conceive what occasioned them, and took care
that she should not be terrified. But she flew up my chimney, and
was so wild, that I thought it right to have her drowned. Fanny
imagines that she was sick and ran away.

March 11, 1797.

_Saturday morning._--I must dine to-day with Mrs. Christie, and
mean to return as early as I can; they seldom dine before five.

Should you call and find only books, have a little patience, and I
shall be with you.

Do not give Fanny a cake to-day. I am afraid she stayed too long
with you yesterday.

You are to dine with me on Monday, remember; the salt beef awaits
your pleasure.

March 17, 1797.

_Friday morning._--And so, you goose, you lost your supper, and
deserved to lose it, for not desiring Mary to give you some beef.

There is a good boy, write me a review of Vaurien. I remember there
is an absurd attack on a Methodist preacher because he denied the
eternity of future punishments.

I should be glad to have the Italian, were it possible, this week,
because I promised to let Johnson have it this week.

These notes speak for themselves.

There was now a decided improvement in the lives of both Mary and Godwin.
The latter, under the new influence, was humanized. Domestic ties, which
he had never known before, softened him. He hereafter appears not only as
the passionless philosopher, but as the loving husband and the
affectionate father, little Fanny Imlay being treated by him as if she
had been his own child. His love transformed him from a mere student of
men to a man like all others. He who had always been, so far as his
emotional nature was concerned, apart from the rest of his kind, was, in
the end, one with them. From being a sceptic on the subject, he was
converted into a firm believer in human passion. With the zeal usually
attributed to converts, he became as warm in his praise of the emotions
as he had before been indifferent in his estimation of