his companion Nicol, who,
in a fit of jealous sulks, refused to accompany him to Castle Gordon.

The settlement with Creech proved to be a very tedious affair, and in
the beginning of December the poet was about to leave the city in
disgust when an accident occurred which gave opportunity for one of
the most extraordinary episodes in the history of his relations with
women. Just before, he had met a Mrs. McLehose who lived in Edinburgh
with her three children, while her husband, from whom she had
separated on account of ill-treatment, had emigrated to Jamaica. A
correspondence began immediately after the first meeting, with the
following letter:

"Madam:

"I had set no small store by my tea-drinking tonight, and have not
often been so disappointed. Saturday evening I shall embrace the
opportunity with the greatest pleasure. I leave this town this day
se'ennight, and probably I shall not return for a couple of
twelvemonths; but I must ever regret that I so lately got an
acquaintance I shall ever highly esteem, and in whose welfare I
shall ever be warmly interested. Our worthy common friend, Miss
Nimmo, in her usual pleasant way, rallied me a good deal on my new
acquaintance, and, in the humour of her ideas, I wrote some lines,
which I enclose to you, as I think they have a good deal of poetic
merit; and Miss Nimmo tells me that you are not only a critic but
a poetess. Fiction, you know, is the native region of poetry; and
I hope you will pardon my vanity in sending you the bagatelle as a
tolerable offhand _jeu d'esprit_. I have several poetic trifles,
which I shall gladly leave with Miss Nimmo or you, if they were
worth house-room; as there are scarcely two people on earth by
whom it would mortify me more to be forgotten, though at the
distance of nine score miles. I am, Madam, With the highest
respect,

"Your very humble servant,

"ROBERT BURNS."

[December 6, 1787.]

The night before Burns was to take tea with his new acquaintance, he
was overturned by a drunken coachman, and received an injury to his
knee which confined him to his rooms for several weeks. Meantime the
correspondence went on with ever-increasing warmth, from "Madam,"
through "My dearest Madam," "my dear kind friend," "my lovely friend,"
to "my dearest angel." They early agreed to call each other Clarinda
and Sylvande