For my part, though I like Fitzgerald extremely, I by no means insist that every other woman shall.

Go, you are a foolish girl, and don’t know what you would be at.  Rivers is a very handsome agreable fellow; but it is in woman to see him without dying for love, of which behold your little Bell an example.  Adieu! be wiser, and believe me

      Ever yours,
          A. Fermor.

Will you go this morning to Montmorenci on the ice, and dine on the island of Orleans? dare you trust yourself in a covered carriole with the dear man?  Don’t answer this, because I am certain you can say nothing on the subject, which will not be very foolish.

LETTER 77.

To Miss Fermor.

I am glad you do not see Colonel Rivers with my eyes; yet it seems to me very strange; I am almost piqued at your giving another the preference.  I will say no more, it being, as you observe, impossible to avoid being absurd on such a subject.

I will go to Montmorenci; and, to shew my courage, will venture in a covered carriole with Colonel Rivers, though I should rather wish your father for my cavalier at present.

      Yours,
          Emily Montague.

LETTER 78.

To Miss Montague.

You are right, my dear:  ’tis more prudent to go with my father.  I love prudence; and will therefore send for Mademoiselle Clairaut to be Rivers’s belle.

        Yours,
          A. Fermor.

LETTER 79.

To Miss Fermor.

You are a provoking chit, and I will go with Rivers.  Your father may attend Madame Villiers, who you know will naturally take it ill if she is not of our party.  We can ask Mademoiselle Clairaut another time.

      Adieu!  Your
          Emily Montague.

LETTER 80.

To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

Silleri, Feb. 25.

Those who have heard no more of a Canadian winter than what regards the intenseness of its cold, must suppose it a very joyless season:  ’tis, I assure you, quite otherwise; there are indeed some days here of the severity of which those who were never out of England can form no conception; but those days seldom exceed a dozen in a whole winter, nor do they come in succession; but at intermediate periods, as the winds set in from the North-West; which, coming some hundred leagues, from frozen lakes and rivers, over woods and mountains covered with snow, would be insupportable, were it not for the furs with which the country abounds, in such variety and plenty as to be within the reach of all its inhabitants.

Thus defended, the British belles set the winter of Canada at defiance; and the season of which you seem to entertain such terrible ideas, is that of the utmost chearfulness and festivity.