You tell me, in your letter, that at eleven o’clock she had sweet rest; and my servant acquaints me, from Mrs. Smith, that she has had a good night.  What hopes does this fill me with!  I have given the fellow five guineas for his good news, to be divided between him and his fellow-servant.

Dear, dear Jack! confirm this to me in thy next—­for Heaven’s sake, do!—­ Tell the doctor I’ll make a present of a thousand guineas if he recover her.  Ask if a consultation then be necessary.

Adieu, dear Belford!  Confirm, I beseech thee, the hopes that now, with sovereign gladness, have taken possession of a heart, that, next to her’s, is

Thine.

LETTER LXVIII

Mr. Belford, to Robert Lovelace, Esq. 
WEDN.  Morn.  Eight o’clock, (6 Sept.)

Your servant arrived here before I was stirring.  I sent him to Smith’s to inquire how the lady was; and ordered him to call upon me when he came back.  I was pleased to hear she had tolerable rest.  As soon as I had dispatched him with the letter I had written over night, I went to attend her.

I found hr up, and dressed; in a white sattin night-gown.  Ever elegant; but now more so than I had seen her for a week past:  her aspect serenely cheerful.

She mentioned the increased dimness of her eyes, and the tremor which had invaded her limbs.  If this be dying, said she, there is nothing at all shocking in it.  My body hardly sensible of pain, my mind at ease, my intellects clear and perfect as ever.  What a good and gracious God have I!—­For this is what I always prayed for.

I told her it was not so serene with you.

There is not the same reason for it, replied she.  ’Tis a choice comfort, Mr. Belford, at the winding up of our short story, to be able to say, I have rather suffered injuries myself, than offered them to others.  I bless God, though I have bee unhappy, as the world deems it, and once I thought more so than at present I think I ought to have done, since my calamities were to work out for me my everlasting happiness; yet have I not wilfully made any one creature so.  I have no reason to grieve for any thing but for the sorrow I have given my friends.

But pray, Mr. Belford, remember me in the best manner to my cousin Morden; and desire him to comfort them, and to tell them, that all would have been the same, had they accepted of my true penitence, as I wish and as I trust the Almighty has done.

I was called down:  it was to Harry, who was just returned from Miss Howe’s, to whom he carried the lady’s letter.  The stupid fellow being bid to make haste with it, and return as soon as possible, staid not until Miss Howe had it, she being at the distance of five minutes, although Mrs. Howe would have had him stay, and sent a man and horse purposely with it to her daughter.