be with you; and
persecuted as you are, how so to separate the effects that spring from
the two causes [persecution and love] as to give to each its particular
due. But this I believe I hinted to you once before; and so will say no
more upon this subject at present.

Robin says, you had but just deposited your last parcel when he took it:
for he was there but half an hour before, and found nothing. He had seen
my impatience, and loitered about, being willing to bring me something
from you, if possible.

My cousin Jenny Fynnett is here, and desires to be my bedfellow
to-night. So I shall not have an opportunity to sit down with that
seriousness and attention which the subjects of yours require. For she
is all prate, you know, and loves to set me a prating; yet comes upon
a very grave occasion--to procure my mother to go with her to her
grandmother Larking, who has long been bed-ridden; and at last has taken
it into her head that she is mortal, and therefore will make her will; a
work she was till now extremely averse to; but it must be upon condition
that my mother, who is her distant relation, will go to her, and advise
her as to the particulars of it: for she has a high opinion, as every
one else has, of my mother's judgment in all matters relating to wills,
settlements, and such-like notable affairs.

Mrs. Larking lives about seventeen miles off; and as my mother cannot
endure to lie out of her own house, she proposes to set out early in
the morning, that she might be able to get back again at night. So,
to-morrow I shall be at your devotion from day-light to day-light; nor
will I be at home to any body.

I have hinted before, that I could almost wish my mother and Mr. Hickman
would make a match of it: and I here repeat my wishes. What signifies
a difference of fifteen or twenty years; especially when the lady has
spirits that will make her young a long time, and the lover is a mighty
sober man?--I think, verily, I could like him better for a papa, than
for a nearer relation: and they are strange admirers of one another.

But allow me a perhaps still better (and, as to years, more suitable and
happier) disposal; for the man at least.--What think you, my dear, of
compromising with your friends, by rejecting both men, and encouraging
my parader?--If your liking one of the two go no farther than
conditional, I believe it will do. A rich thought, if it obtain your
approbation! In this light, I should have a prodigio