old gentleman had underscored the
"_sisterly_" himself.

To my delight and surprise, there was a long, very long, letter from Lucy,
too! How it happened that I did not recognise her pretty, delicate,
lady-like handwriting, is more than I can say; but the direction had been
overlooked in the confusion of receiving so many letters together. That
direction, too, gave me pleasure. It was to "Miles Wallingford, Esquire;"
whereas the three others were addressed to "Capt. Miles Wallingford, ship
Dawn, New York." Now a ship-master is no more entitled, in strict usage,
to be called a "captain," than he is to be called an "esquire." Your
man-of-war officer is the only true _captain_; a 'master' being nothing
but a 'master.' Then, no American is entitled to be called an 'esquire,'
which is the correlative of "knight," and is a title properly prohibited
by the constitution, though most people imagine that a magistrate is an
"esquire" ex officio. He is an "esquire" as a member of congress is an
"honourable," by assumption, and not of right; and I wish the country had
sufficient self-respect to be consistent with itself. What should we think
of Mark Anthony, Esquire? or of 'Squire Lucius Junius Brutus? or His
Excellency Julius Caesar, Esquire?[4] Nevertheless, "esquire" is an
appellation that is now universally given to a gentleman, who, in truth,
is the only man in this country that, has any right to it at all, and he
only by courtesy. Lucy had felt this distinction, and I was grateful for
the delicacy and tact with which she had dropped the "captain," and put in
the "esquire." To me it seemed to say that _she_ recognised me as one of
her own class, let Rupert, and his light associates, think of me as they
might. Lucy never departed a hair's breadth from the strictly proper, in
all matters of this sort, something having been obtained from education,
but far more from the inscrutable gifts of nature.

[Footnote 4: A few years since, the writer saw a marriage announced in a
_coloured_ paper, which read, "Married, by the Rev. Julius
Caesar.--Washington, to Miss--------."]

As for the letter itself, it is too long to copy; yet I scarce know how to
describe it. Full of heart it was, of course, for the dear girl was all
heart; and it was replete with her truth and nature. The only thing in it
that did not give me entire satisfaction, was a request not to come again
to Clawbonny, until my return from Europe. "Time," she added, "wil