University of Virginia Library

You have left—you have forsaken me,
Caroline! But I will haunt you with my letters;
obtrude myself upon your remembrance;
and extort from you the continuance of your
friendship!

What do I say? Obtrude and extort! Can
these harsh words be used when I am addressing
the generous and faithful Caroline?

But you have often encouraged my eccentricities
by your smile, and must therefore still indulge
them.

Nature has furnished me with a gay disposition;
and happy is it for me, that a lax education
has not strengthened the folly too commonly
arising from it.

Mrs. Williams's instructions were very seasonably
interposed to impress my mind with a sense
of virtue and propriety. I trust they have had
the desired effect; and that they will prove the
guardian of my youth, and the directory of maturer
age. How often has the dear, good woman
taken me into her chamber, and reminded
me of indecorums of which I was unconscious
at the time; but thankful afterwards that they
had not escaped her judicious eye; as her observations
tended to rectify my errors, and render

me more cautious and circumspct in future.
How salutary is advice like her's; conveyed, not
with the dogmatic air of supercilious wisdom;
but with the condescending ease and soothing
kindness of an affectionate parent, anxiously
concerned for the best good of those under her
care!

I was very happy at Harmony-Grove; and
the result of that happiness, I hope, will accompany
me through life.

Yet I find the gaiety of the town adapted to
my taste; nor does even Mrs. Williams condemn
the enjoyment of its pleasures.

I was, last evening, at a ball; and I assure
you, the attention I gained, and the gallantry
displayed to attract my notice and approbation,
were very flattering to my vanity; though I
could not forbear inwardly smiling at the futile
arts of the pretty fellows who exhibited them.

Their speeches appeared to have been so long
practised, that I was on the point of advising
them to exercise their genius, if they had any,
in the invention of something new. But a polite
conformity to the ton restrained my satire,
Adieu.