the time is at no great diftance when he will be fenfible of this. How fortunate for mifs Proctor that he had a difcerning and virtuous friend near her! I expect foon to hear that she is with her father. You may enjoy the additional fatisfaction of knowing that you have prevented the remainder of that worthy man's life from being overwhelmed with anguish. I can no more throw out the pleasure of the marchionefs's fociety as a lure for your speedy return her husband has obtained an honourable and advantageous establishment at Peterburg. A near relation of his arrived the other day, for the exprefs purpose of conducting her to that capital; and, a ship being ready to fail thither, fhe would not allow the opportunity to flip. I have juft parted with her-not without. tears on both fides. She is, indeed, a charming woman. She expreffed the utmost regret at leaving England without feeing you. "It required," faid fhe, "all the love I feel for my hufband, and all the obedience I owe him, to make ine agree to it," She had fo many things to arrange, that the could not write to you :-she will do it from Plymouth. Your good friend, lady Deanport, is outrageous. My lord has carried mifs Almond abroad; perhaps I fhould have faid the reverfe; for many people think that it is she who has carried him. She is thought to have obtained a great afcendancy over him, and to have influenced him to this ftep, to avoid the continual reproaches of his mother. Her ladyship's chief occupation at present is, driving about among thofe who call themselves her friends, to complain of her fon, and abuse his companion. What marks of fympathy they fhow, while fhe is with them, I know not; but I understand they make a jeft of her affliction when she is not. I was always fhocked with Rochefoucault's horrid maxim-" that, in the adverfity of our friends, there is fomething that does not difplease us." Lady Deanport has reason to think it true. Thank heaven, my dear Horatia, that you and I know it to be falfe! Adieu! my lovely friend. D. FRANKLIN. After you have conducted mifs Proctor to her father's, I dare fay you will think it right to return to London. Indeed I am impatient, my dear, to fee you. In the humour your brother will probably be, you had best be at a distance from him. Pray set out. LETTER CXI. The Hon. JOHN MORDAUNT to Lord MORDAUNT. Afhwood. I THANK you very cordially, my dear brother, for your laft kind letter *; and will now inform you of what has happened fince. I know it to be your opinion, that I am not apt to be overrun with timidity, when têteà-tête with a woman; yet I have had feveral opportunities of being alone with mifs Clifford, all of which I have allowed to flip, without making the declaration I intended. As often as I attempted to express my fentiments, I found my mind agitated and confufed, and my tongue benumbed. The fight of beauty ufed to inspire me with the firmness of youth, not with the *The letter here alluded to is omitted. tremor of age; and mifs Clifford's is fuch, that A wither'd hermit, five score winters worn, Distinguished beauty never overawed me from my purpose, though of a far more audacious nature. It is clear that the impreffion this lady made on me fprung from a different source. Whence did this arife?-From my conviction of her being a woman of sense, understanding, and virtue, inftead of being deficient in the two former, or one of those whom we fufpect to have no very great value for the last. The day on which I received your letter, however, Sommers being engaged in business with his steward, and mifs Proctor with Mrs. Sommers, I faw, from the window of my chamber, mifs Clifford turn from the end of the avenue into a foot-path leading to a fmall mount, from which there is an ex |