Notwithstanding all my daughter says in gaiety of heart, she would sooner even relinquish the man she loves, than offend a father in whom she has always found the tenderest and most faithful of friends.  I am interrupted, and have only time to say, I have the honor to be,

      My Lord, &c. 
          Wm. Fermor.

LETTER 136.

To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall.

Silleri, May 13.

Madame Des Roches has just left us; she returns to-day to the Kamaraskas:  she came to take leave of us, and shewed a concern at parting from Emily, which really affected me.  She is a most amiable woman; Emily and she were in tears at parting; yet I think my sweet friend is not sorry for her return:  she loves her, but yet cannot absolutely forget she has been her rival, and is as well satisfied that she leaves Quebec before your brother’s arrival.

The weather is lovely; the earth is in all its verdure, the trees in foliage, and no snow but on the sides of the mountains; we are looking eagerly out for ships from dear England:  I expect by them volumes of letters from my Lucy.  We expect your brother in a week:  in short, we are all hope and expectation; our hearts beat at every rap of the door, supposing it brings intelligence of a ship, or of the dear man.

Fitzgerald takes such amazing pains to please me, that I begin to think it is pity so much attention should be thrown away; and am half inclined, from meer compassion, to follow the example you have so heroically set me.

Absolutely, Lucy, it requires amazing resolution to marry.

      Adieu! yours,
          A. Fermor.

LETTER 137.

To Colonel Rivers, at Montreal.

Silleri, May 14.

I am returned, my Rivers, to my sweet friend, and have again the dear delight of talking of you without restraint; she bears with, she indulges me in, all my weakness; if that name ought to be given to a tenderness of which the object is the most exalted and worthy of his sex.

It was impossible I should not have loved you; the soul that spoke in those eloquent eyes told me, the first moment we met, our hearts were formed for each other; I saw in that amiable countenance a sensibility similar to my own, but which I had till then sought in vain; I saw there those benevolent smiles, which are the marks, and the emanations of virtue; those thousand graces which ever accompany a mind conscious of its own dignity, and satisfied with itself; in short, that mental beauty which is the express image of the Deity.

What defence had I against you, my Rivers, since your merit was such that my reason approved the weakness of my heart?