third was dated the 20th of June.* Having not heard one word from
you since the promising billet of the 9th, I own I did not spare you in
it. I ventured it by the usual conveyance, by that Wilson's, having no
other: so cannot be sure you received it. Indeed I rather think you
might not; because in your's, which fell into my mother's hands, you make
no mention of it: and if you had had it, I believe it would have touched
you too much to have been passed by unnoticed.

* See Letter XXX. of this volume.

You have heard, that I have been ill, you say. I had a cold, indeed; but
it was so slight a one that it confined me not an hour. But I doubt not
that strange things you have heard, and been told, to induce you to take
the step you took. And, till you did take that step (the going back with
this villain, I mean,) I knew not a more pitiable case than your's: since
every body must have excused you before, who knew how you were used at
home, and was acquainted with your prudence and vigilance. But, alas! my
dear, we see that the wisest people are not to be depended upon, when
love, like an ignis fatuus, holds up its misleading lights before their
eyes.

My mother tells me, she sent you an answer, desiring you not to write to
me, because it would grieve me. To be sure I am grieved; exceedingly
grieved; and, disappointed too, you must permit me to say. For I had
always thought that there never was such a woman, at your years, in the
world.

But I remember once an argument you held, on occasion of a censure passed
in company upon an excellent preacher, who was not a very excellent
liver: preaching and practising, you said, required very different
talents:* which, when united in the same person, made the man a saint; as
wit and judgment, going together, constituted a genius.

* See Vol. II. Letter IV.

You made it out, I remember, very prettily: but you never made it out,
excuse me, my dear, more convincingly, than by that part of your late
conduct, which I complain of.

My love for you, and my concern for your honour, may possibly have made
me a little of the severest. If you think so, place it to its proper
account; to that love, and to that concern: which will but do justice
to

Your afflicted and faithful
A.H.

P.S. My mother would not be satisfied without reading my letter herself;
and that before I had fixed all the proposed hooks. She knows, by
this means, and has excused, our for