Being but in lodgings in town, neither you nor your lady can require much preparation.

Some time on Monday I hope to attend the dear young lady, to make her my compliments; and to receive her apology for your negligence:  which, and her going down with me, as I said before, shall be full satisfaction.  Mean time, God bless her for her courage, (tell her I say so;) and bless you both in each other; and that will be happiness to us all—­ particularly to

Your truly affectionate Aunt,
Eliz.  Lawrance.

TO ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ.

Dear cousin,

At last, as we understand, there is some hope of you.  Now does my good Lord run over his bead-roll of proverbs; of black oxen, wild oats, long lanes, and so forth.

Now, Cousin, say I, is your time come; and you will be no longer, I hope, an infidel either to the power or excellence of the sex you have pretended hitherto so much as undervalue; nor a ridiculer or scoffer at an institution which all sober people reverence, and all rakes, sooner or later, are brought to reverence, or to wish they had.

I want to see how you become your silken fetters:  whether the charming yoke sits light upon your shoulders.  If with such a sweet yoke-fellow it does not, my Lord, and my sister, as well as I, think that you will deserve a closer tie about your neck.

His Lordship is very much displeased, that you have not written him word of the day, the hour, the manner, and every thing.  But I ask him, how he can already expect any mark of deference or politeness from you?  He must stay, I tell him, till that sign of reformation, among others, appear from the influence and example of your lady:  but that, if ever you will be good for any thing, it will be quickly seen.  And, O Cousin, what a vast, vast journey have you to take from the dreary land of libertinism, through the bright province of reformation, into the serene kingdom of happiness!—­You had need to lose no time.  You have many a weary step to tread, before you can overtake those travellers who set out for it from a less remote quarter.  But you have a charming pole-star to guide you; that’s your advantage.  I wish you joy of it:  and as I have never yet expected any highly complaisant thing from you, I make no scruple to begin first; but it is purely, I must tell you, in respect to my new cousin; whose accession into our family we most heartily congratulate and rejoice in.

I have a letter from Lady Betty.  She commands either my attendance or my sister’s to my cousin Leeson’s.  She puts Lord M. in hopes, that she shall certainly bring down with her our lovely new relation; for she says, she will not be denied.  His Lordship is the willinger to let me be the person, as I am in a manner wild to see her; my sister having two years ago had that honour at Sir Robert Biddulph’s.  So get ready to accompany us in our return; except your lady had objections strong enough to satisfy us all.  Lady Sarah longs to see her; and says, This accession to the family will supply to it the loss of her beloved daughter.