“I remember it, my dear—­and you have well pointed your parable, and had nothing to do, but to say—­’Thou art the man!’”

I am called upon by my dear benefactor for a little airing, and he suffers me only to conclude this long letter.  So I am obliged, with greater abruptness than I had designed, to mention thankfully your ladyship’s goodness to me; particularly in that kind, kind letter, in behalf of my dear parents, had a certain event taken place.  Mr. B. shewed it to me this morning, and not before—­I believe, for fear I should have been so much oppressed by the sense of your unmerited goodness to me, had he let me known of it before your departure from us, that I should not have been able to look up at you; heaping favours and blessings upon me, as you were hourly doing besides.  What a happy creature am I!—­But my gratitude runs me into length; and sorry I am, that I cannot have time just now to indulge it.

Is there nothing, my dear Lord and Lady Davers, my dear Lady Countess, and my good Lord C., that I can do, to shew at least, that I have a will, and am not an ungrateful, sordid creature?

And yet, if you give me power to do any thing that will have the appearance of a return, even that power will be laying a fresh obligation upon me—­Which, however, I should be very proud of, because I should thereby convince you, by more than words, how much I am (most particularly, my dearest Lady Davers, my sister, my friend, my patroness), your most obliged and faithful servant, P.B.

Your dear brother joins in respectful thankfulness to his four noble gossips.  And my Billy, by his lips, subscribed his.  I hope so to direct his earliest notions, as to make him sensible of his dutiful obligation.

LETTER LXIV

From Lady Davers to Mrs. B.

MY DEAREST PAMELA,

Talk not to us of unreturnable obligations and all that.  You do more for us, in the entertainment you give us all, by your letters, than we have done, or even can do, for you.  And as to me, I know no greater pleasure in the world than that which my brother’s felicity and yours gives me.  God continue this felicity to you both.  I am sure it will be his fault, and not yours, if it be at all diminished.

We have heard some idle rumours here, as if you were a little uneasy of late; and having not had a letter from you for this fortnight past, it makes me write, to ask you how you all do? and whether you expected an answer from me to your last?

I hope you won’t be punctilious with me.  For we have nothing to write about, except it be how much we all love and honour you; and that you believe already, or else you don’t do us justice.