C. CLIFTON




LETTER XXXVII

_Anna Wenbourne St. Ives to Louisa Clifton_

_Chateau de Villebrun_

In compliance with the very warm entreaties of our kind French friends,
we have been hurried away from the metropolis sooner than was intended.
We are at present in the country, at the Chateau de Villebrun; where,
if we are not merry, it is not for the want of laughing. Our feet and
our tongues are never still. We dance, talk, sing, ride, sail, or
rather paddle about in a small but romantic lake; in short we are never
out of exercise.

Clifton is as active as the best, and is very expert in all feats of
agility. With the French he seems to dance for the honour of his
nation; and, with me, from a desire to prove that the man who makes
pretensions to me, which he now does openly enough, is capable of every
excellence.

You know, Louisa, how much I despise the affectation of reserve; but he
is so enterprising a youth that I am sometimes obliged, though very
unwillingly, to exert a little mild authority.