Your affectionate daughter,

C. VERNON





XIX


LADY SUSAN TO MRS. JOHNSON


Churchhill.


You will be eager, I know, to hear something further of Frederica, and
perhaps may think me negligent for not writing before. She arrived with her
uncle last Thursday fortnight, when, of course, I lost no time in demanding
the cause of her behaviour; and soon found myself to have been perfectly
right in attributing it to my own letter. The prospect of it frightened her
so thoroughly, that, with a mixture of true girlish perverseness and folly,
she resolved on getting out of the house and proceeding directly by the
stage to her friends, the Clarkes; and had really got as far as the length
of two streets in her journey when she was fortunately missed, pursued, and
overtaken. Such was the first distinguished exploit of Miss Frederica
Vernon; and, if we consider that it was achieved at the tender age of
sixteen, we shall have room for the most flattering prognostics of her
future renown. I am excessively provoked, however, at the parade of