J.E.L.

[Footnote A: John Whitman, whose father was brother to the grandfather
of "Eliza Wharton," married a daughter of Rev. Mr. Foster, of Stafford,
Connecticut, who afterwards settled in Stow, Massachusetts, and who was
father of Rev. John Foster, of Brighton, Massachusetts, the husband of
the author of this book.]




THE COQUETTE;
OR,
THE HISTORY OF ELIZA WHARTON.




LETTER I.

TO MISS LUCY FREEMAN.

NEW HAVEN

An unusual sensation possesses my breast--a sensation which I once
thought could never pervade it on any occasion whatever. It is
_pleasure_, pleasure, my dear Lucy, on leaving my paternal roof. Could
you have believed that the darling child of an indulgent and
dearly-beloved mother would feel a gleam of joy at leaving her? But so