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LETTERS. 141
tome. I went into the drawing-room and read, to my as-
tonishment, a very well-written offer of marriage in due
form for my chétive person from » who probably had
waited for his promotion to a higher office before making
a final attempt, which rather astonished me after all that I
had told him. The letter is otherwise very good, and I
was really sorry for the man, that he should have addressed
the wrong person. Having read the letter, I returned it
to my father, who asked me what he was to answer. With-
out the slightest hesitation, as you may well imagine, I
begged of him to say, “ No, I thank you most humbly!”
And there was an end of it for that evening. This morn-
ing my father sent for me, read me his answer, and asked
me whether it was according to my wish. It contained
many good things, but others which might have been left
out. But it would never have done for me to make any
remark. Afterwards I agreed with my mother and sisters,
that, in order to enjoy life’s mediocre happiness, which, per-
haps, is all one can expect, one would do wiser to take a
, than many another one with great external gifts and
ee estates, — provided, nota bene, one intends to enter
into the holy state of matrimony, which I pray, together
with all the tortures mentioned in the Litany, to be spared
from. I confess, however, that I would rather wish to be
able to exclaim, with one of Sir Walter Scott’s personages,
“Mon mari, épargnez notre ennemi,” than “Généreux en-
nemis, épargnez mon mari ;” which latter, no doubt, "$
wife will have to learn by heart.
. You ask me whether I would like to stay with Agatha
W. ? I should like it, at least for some time, for a win-
ter or so. One of my reasons is, that I should like to write
and try my wings as an authoress. Here in town this is
impossible. All my energy, my wit, my ideas become
mouldy. Besides, I have a great longing to breathe a little
fresh air, and would wish at the same time to be, if I could,
of some comfort to Agatha W. For my sisters I can
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