will be able to ascertain how far your offer may be a losing one;
if so, you can deduct proportionably; and if not, I shall not at
any rate allow you to go higher than your present proposal, which
is very handsome, and more than fair.[112]

"I have had--but this must be _entre nous_--a very kind note, on
the subject of 'The Bride,' from Sir James Mackintosh, and an
invitation to go there this evening, which it is now too late to
accept."

[Footnote 111: Penrose's Journal, a book published by Mr. Murray at this
time.]

[Footnote 112: Mr. Murray had offered him a thousand guineas for the two
poems.]

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

"November 29. 1813. Sunday--Monday morning--three o'clock--in my
doublet and hose,--_swearing_.

"I send you in time an errata page, containing an omission of mine,
which must be thus added, as it is too late for insertion in the
text. The passage is an imitation altogether from Medea in Ovid,
and is incomplete without these two lines. Pray let this be done,
and directly; it is necessary, will add one page to your book
(_making_), and can do no harm, and is yet in time for the
_public_. Answer me, thou oracle, in the affirmative. You can send