n being
so punctual; on the contrary I assure you, that it is a far greater
Gratification to me to write to you, than to spend the Evening either at
a Concert or a Ball. Mr Marlowe is so desirous of my appearing at some
of the Public places every evening that I do not like to refuse him, but
at the same time so much wish to remain at Home, that independant of
the Pleasure I experience in devoting any portion of my Time to my
Dear Eloisa, yet the Liberty I claim from having a letter to write of
spending an Evening at home with my little Boy, you know me well enough
to be sensible, will of itself be a sufficient Inducement (if one is
necessary) to my maintaining with Pleasure a Correspondence with you.
As to the subject of your letters to me, whether grave or merry, if they
concern you they must be equally interesting to me; not but that I think
the melancholy Indulgence of your own sorrows by repeating them and
dwelling on them to me, will only encourage and increase them, and
that it will be more prudent in you to avoid so sad a subject; but yet
knowing as I do what a soothing and melancholy Pleasure it must afford
you, I cannot prevail on myself to deny you so great an Indulgence, and
will only insist on your not expecting me to encourage you in it, by my
own letters; on the contrary I intend to fill them with such lively Wit
and enlivening Humour as shall even provoke a smile in the sweet but
sorrowfull countenance of my Eloisa.

In the first place you are to learn that I have met your sisters three
freinds Lady Lesley and her Daughters, twice in Public since I have been
here. I know you will be impatient to hear my opinion of the Beauty of
three Ladies of whom you have heard so much. Now, as you are too ill and
too unhappy to be vain, I think I may venture to inform you that I
like none of their faces so well as I do your own. Yet they are all
handsome--Lady Lesley indeed I have seen before; her Daughters I beleive
would in general be said to have a finer face than her Ladyship, and yet
what with the charms of a Blooming complexion, a little Affectation and
a great deal of small-talk, (in each of which she is superior to the
young Ladies) she will I dare say gain herself as many admirers as the
more regular features of Matilda, and Margaret. I am sure you will agree
with me in saying that they can none of them be of a proper size for
real Beauty, when you know that two of them are taller and the other
shorter than ou