LETTER IX

MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
TUESDAY, AUG. 15.*


* Text error: should be Aug. 16.


Thank thee, Jack; most heartily I thank thee, for the sober conclusion of
thy last!--I have a good mind, for the sake of it, to forgive thy till
now absolutely unpardonable extracts.

But dost think I will lose such an angel, such a forgiving angel, as
this?--By my soul, I will not!--To pray for mercy for such an ungrateful
miscreant!--how she wounds me, how she cuts me to the soul, by her
exalted generosity!--But SHE must have mercy upon me first!--then will
she teach me a reliance for the sake of which her prayer for me will be
answered.

But hasten, hasten to me particulars of her health, of her employments,
of her conversation.

I am sick only of love! Oh! that I could have called her mine!--it would
then have been worth while to be sick!--to have sent for her down to me
from town; and to have had her, with healing in her dove-like wings,
flying to my comfort; her duty and her choice to pray for me, and to bid