LETTER CXIII. Lord MORDAUNT to the Hon. JOHN MORDAUNT. I London. CONGRATULATE you moft cordially, my dear Jack, on the footing you are with your beloved. It is clear to me fhe intends to be yours. No woman of her fenfe and candour would have given such playful answers to the ferious declarations you made. When a woman is determined to answer in the affirmative at last, she may be allowed to amuse herself, and teaze her lover a little, with halfnegatives; but if fhe means to refufe him finally, he has no right to indulge herself in that kind of paftime. And this young lady is not the mifs Clifford I take her for, and whom I fhall glory in calling my fifter, if she is not far above.attempting it. That you are in poffeffion of her heart and soul, my dear Jack, I have no doubt; but I am not fo abfolutely fure that you will have the appro bation of lady Diana Franklin, on whose friendship miss Clifford puts the highest value. She is in the right :-to be the felect friend of lady Diana would do honour to any woman, and is one fource of the very high opinion I entertain of the merit of mifs Horatia Clifford. That a woman of fo very excellent a character as her ladyship should be fufpected of being against you, my good friend, is not very much to your credit. However, as I am perfuaded that her oppofition, if the really intends any, will not be infurmountable, I once more wish you joy. it As your friend Travers hardly ever writes, may be neceffary that I should inform you what has kept him fo long from you. The very day before he intended to fet out for the colonel's, Mr. Plaintive was feized with a pleurify, which required copious and frequent bleedings, blifterings, &c. Travers attended him with the most affectionate tenderness, perfuaded him to dismiss the oftentatious trifler whom he has been fo long in the habit of confulting when nothing ailed him, and to put himself under the care of a practitioner equally distinguished for integrity and profeffional skill. In confequence of which, the most acute and dangerous ftage of his complaint is now happily over; but, as he is wonderfully weakened, Travers told me that he could not think of leaving him till he should recover his ftrength in a confiderable degree. In the mean time he spends great part of his time in his uncle's apartment. When I called the other day he defired to fee me. Travers was with him. "You remember, my lord," said Mr. Plaintive, "how great an enemy my nephew used to be to physicians; yet I am convinced that he has, by the means of a physician, faved my life." "I am no enemy to phyficians, my dear fir," replied Travers; " but I have long been convinced that, though fome people confult phyficians because they have diseases, yet there are others who have difeafes because they confult physicians, This laft was certainly not your cafe in your late complaint; but now as that, I thank God, is removed, I hope you will have nothing farther to say to them, until you have fome real disease, which it is almoft impoffible you can have for half a dozen years, at fooneft." "What makes you fancy fo?" "Fancy!" replied Travers. "I am fure of it: your laft complaint was fo violent, it searched and purified your constitution fo thoroughly, that there are no feeds left from which any disease worth minding can poffibly fpring. All you have to do is, to eat wholefome food, take moderate exercise, and keep cheerful company." "I am con Mr. Plaintive looked at me. vinced that Dr. Travers is in the right," faid I;" and I am refolved to follow his prescription myself." "And fo am I," rejoined Plaintive, "for he has already done me more good than all the doctors I have hitherto put my trust in." I give you this detail, because it puts Travers in a new point of view, very much to his advantage; and because it will afford you |