flowers. Now, if I had had my glass, I could have told in a moment,
and shouldn't have been obliged to lose all the prayers.

But, as I was saying, those poor old people in Babylon and Nineveh!
only think, if they had had the privileges of prayers for six or seven
weeks in Lent, and regular preaching the rest of the year, except, of
course, in the summer--(by the by, I wonder if they all had some kind
of Saratoga or Newport to go to?--I mean to ask Mr. Cheese)--they
might have been good, and all have been happy. It's quite awful to
hear how eloquent and earnest the Doctor is when he preaches against
Babylon. Mr. P. says he likes to have him "pitch into those old
sinners; it does 'em so much good;" and then he looks quite
fierce. Mr. Cheese is going to read me a sermon he has written upon
the maidenhood of Lot's wife. He says that he quotes a great deal of
poetry in it, and that I must _dam_ up the fount of my tears when
he reads it. It was an odd expression for a minister, wasn't it? and I
was obliged to say, "Mr. Cheese, you forget yourself." He replied,
"Dear Mrs. Potiphar, I will explain;" and he did so; so that I admired
him more than ever.

Dearest Caroline,--if you should only like him! He asked one day
about you; and when I told him what a dear, good girl you are, he
said: "And her father has worldly possessions, has he not?"

I answered, yes; that your father was very rich. Then he sighed, and
said that he could never marry an heiress unless he clearly saw it to
be his duty. Isn't it a beautiful resignation?

I had no idea of saying so much about him, but you know it's proper,
when writing a letter in Lent, to talk about religious matters. And, I