The result is this, that I am fitter for this world than you; you for
the next than me:--that is the difference.--But long, long, for my
sake, and for hundreds of sakes, may it be before you quit us for
company more congenial to you and more worthy of you!

I communicated to my mother the account you give of your strange
reception; also what a horrid wretch they have found out for you; and
the compulsory treatment they give you. It only set her on magnifying
her lenity to me, on my tyrannical behaviour, as she will call it
[mothers must have their way, you know, my dear] to the man whom she
so warmly recommends, against whom it seems there can be no just
exception; and expatiating upon the complaisance I owe her for her
indulgence. So I believe I must communicate to her nothing farther--
especially as I know she would condemn the correspondence between us,
and that between you and Lovelace, as clandestine and undutiful
proceedings, and divulge our secret besides; for duty implicit is her
cry. And moreover she lends a pretty open ear to the preachments of
that starch old bachelor your uncle Antony; and for an example to her
daughter would be more careful how she takes your part, be the cause
ever so just.

Yet is this not the right policy neither. For people who allow
nothing will be granted nothing: in other words, those who aim at
carrying too many points will not be able to carry any.

But can you divine, my dear, what the old preachment-making, plump-
hearted soul, your uncle Antony, means by his frequent amblings
hither?--There is such smirking and smiling between my mother and him!