Adieu! I am interrupted,
Yours,
Ed. Rivers.



LETTER 9.


To Mrs. Melmoth, at Montreal.

Quebec, August 24.

I cannot, Madam, express my obligation to you for having added a
postscript to Major Melmoth's letter: I am sure he will excuse my
answering the whole to you; if not, I beg he may know that I shall be
very pert about it, being much more solicitous to please you than him,
for a thousand reasons too tedious to mention.

I thought you had more penetration than to suppose me indifferent:
on the contrary, sensibility is my fault; though it is not your little
every-day beauties who can excite it: I have admirable dispositions to
love, though I am hard to please: in short, _I am not cruel, I am
only nice_: do but you, or your divine friend, give me leave to wear
your chains, and you shall soon be convinced I can love _like an
angel_, when I set in earnest about it. But, alas! you are married,
and in love with your husband; and your friend is in a situation still
more unfavorable to a lover's hopes. This is particularly unfortunate,
as you are the only two of your bewitching sex in Canada, for whom my
heart feels the least sympathy. To be plain, but don't tell the little