fond of retirement. What reason can be assigned for their apparent
reluctance to this evening's entertainment is to me incomprehensible;
but I shall apply the chemical powers of friendship, and extract the
secret from Mrs. Richman to-morrow, if not before. Adieu. I am now
summoned to dinner, and after that shall be engaged in preparation till
the wished-for hour of hilarity and mirth engrosses every faculty of
your

ELIZA WHARTON.


LETTER VII.

TO MR. SELBY.

NEW HAVEN.

Divines need not declaim, nor philosophers expatiate, on the
disappointments of human life. Are they not legibly written on every
page of our existence? Are they not predominantly prevalent over every
period of our lives?

When I closed my last letter to you, my heart exulted in the pleasing
anticipation of promised bliss; my wishes danced on the light breezes of
hope; and my imagination dared to arrest the attention of, and even
claim a return of affection from, the lovely Eliza Wharton. But
imagination only it has proved, and that dashed with the bitter
ranklings of jealousy and suspicion.

But to resume my narrative. I reached the mansion of my friend about