Mr. Jenkings did not get out; Lady Powis refused to part with Miss Warley this night.  Whilst I write, I hope she is enjoying a sweet refreshing sleep.  O!  Molesworth! could I flatter myself she dreams of me!—­

To-morrow Lord and Lady Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Winter, dine here; consequently Miss Winter, and her fond admirer, Lord Baily.—­How often have I laugh’d to see that cooing, billing, pair?  It is come home, you’ll say, with a vengeance.—­Not so neither.—­I never intend making such a very fool of myself as Lord Baily.—­Pray, Madam, don’t sit against that door;—­and pray, Madam, don’t sit against this window.—­I hear you have encreased your cold;—­you speak hoarse:—­indeed, Madam, you speak hoarse, though you won’t confess it.—­In this strain has the monkey ran on for two hours.—­No body must help him at table but Miss Winter.—­He is always sure to eat whatever is next her.—­She, equally complaisant, sends her plate to him;—­desires he will have a bit of the same.—­Excessively high, my Lord;—­you never eat any thing so well done.—­The appearance of fruit is generally the occasion of great altercation:—­What! venture on peaches again, Miss Winter?—­Indeed, my Lord, I shall only eat this small one;—­that was not half ripe which made me sick yesterday.—­No more nuts; I absolutely lay an embargo on nuts,—­No more, nonsense:  I absolutely lay an embargo on nonsense, says Molesworth to

DARCEY.

LETTER XVI.

Miss WARLEY to Lady MARY SUTTON.

Barford Abbey.

Once more, my dear Lady, I dispatch a packet from this place,—­after bidding adieu to the agreeable Dean,—­Brandon Lodge,—­and my friends in that neighbourhood.

How long I shall continue here, God only knows.—­If my wishes could avail, the time would be short; very short, indeed.—­I am quite out of patience with Mr. and Mrs. Smith; some delay every time I hear from them.—­First, we were to embark the middle of this month;—­then the latter end;—­now it is put off till the beginning of the next:—­perhaps, when I hear next, it will be, they do not go at all.—­Such weak resolutions are never to be depended on;—­a straw, like a magnet, will draw them from side to side.

I think I am as much an inhabitant of this house as of Mr. Jenkings’s:—­I lay here last night after my journey, and shall dine here this day; but as a great deal of company is expected, must go to my other home to dress.—­To-morrow your Ladyship shall command me.

From Mr. Jenkings’s.

Rejoice with me, my dear Lady.—­You will rejoice, I know, you will. to find my eyes are open to my folly.—­How could I be so vain; so presumptuous!—­Yes, it must be vanity, it must be presumption to the highest,—­gloss it over as I will,—­to harbour thoughts which before this your Ladyship is acquainted with.—­Did you not blush for me?—­did you not in contempt