SECONDE LETTRE

« 141I1 Jiine 1825.

(( Mylord, *

(( Permit me to assure your Lordship that I am not guilty of the presumption of intending to inflict an annual letter upon you ; and sincerily do I regret that my thoughts cannot be open to your view instead of thèse lines; as, could you know them, I venture to believe, you would readily forgive what otherwise may appear intrusive. Once, since 1 left Paris, I hâve presumed to trouble your Lordship with a few lines, requesting that the manuscript I had so cherished during twenty seven years might be returned to me. But as it has not been your pleasure to comply with this request, I suppose I ought to forbear a répétition of it.

« Mylord, I may perhaps not again intrudc on

410 SOUVENIRS ET C ORUESPOTiD ANGE

you, never perhaps I see you more on this side of the grave; forgive me then this once, if I avail myself of the opportunity afforded by admirai Sutton, who is going to Paris with the intention of leaving my eldest son there , in order that he may attain some facility in speaking the French language. an acquirement which will perhaps be useful to him whatever may be his future destiny. When I had the lionor of seeing you at Paris , I felt the impropriety of trespassing upon your Lordship's occupied time , and therefore could not venture to explain myself on some points , in which I saw by your glance (which language itis impossible to misunderstand) whatyourpoliteness would kindlyhave concealed.

(( But if, in the endeavour to promote the welfare of her child, a mother should say a few words too much, it is, I trust, an error that in some measure pleads its own excuse, particularly in time like the présent, when interest is evenj thing , and scarcely any situation in which a young man may struggle through life can be obtained, even by purchase, unless patronage smooth the way.

« But I will not présume further to detain your attention. Let it be permitted me only to say, Mylord, that feelings too keen to be controled rendered the first few minutes 1 passed under your roof most acutely painful. The e vents of seven and twenty

previous years ail rushed to my recoliection ; from the early period when you crossed my path like a meteor, to leave me in darkness, when you desappeared, to that inexpressibhj bitter moment, when I stood in your house an uninvited stranger, and in a character as new to myself as perhaps unwelcome to you.

« Farewell, Mylord. May you be happy ! is the deeply felt, the earnest wish of Your Lordship's devoted and obedient servant,

« Charlotte Sutton. »