Dick will be in town with us most part of the winter:--I have wrote him to that purpose, and mention'd your name. He will rejoice to see you:--I have often heard him regret your acquaintance was of so short standing.--Bridgman set out for York the day before I arrived; his servants inform me he is not expected back this three weeks.
I like our lodgings vastly; but more so as the master and mistress of the family are excessively clean and obliging; two things so material to my repose, that I absolutely could not dispense patiently with either.--This it was which made me felicitous about taking a house; I am now so happily situated, I wish not to have one in town whilst I remain a batchelor. Heaven knows how long that will be!--Your nonpareil has given me a dislike to all my former slight prepossessions.
Lady Elizabeth Curtis!--I did once indeed think a little seriously of her:--but _such_ a meer girl!--Perhaps the time she has spent in France, Germany, and the Lord knows where, may have changed her from a little bewitching, smiling, artless creature--to a _vain, designing, haughty_,--I could call a coquet by a thousand names;--but Lady Elizabeth _can_-not, _must_ not be a coquet.--Cupid, though, shall never tye a bandage over my eyes.--The charms that must fix me are not to be borrow'd;--I shall look for them in her affection to her relations;--in a condescending behaviour to inferiors;--above all, when she offers up her first duties.--If she shines here, I shall not follow her to the card-table, or play-house:--every thing must be right in a heart where duty, affection, and humility, has the precedence.
The misfortune of our sex is this: when taken with a fine face, we enquire no further than, Is she _polite?_--Is she _witty?_ Does she _dance_ well?--sing well?--in short, _is_ she fit to appear in the _Beau Monde_; whilst good sense and virtues which constitute real happiness, are left out of the question.
How does beauty,--politeness--wit,--a fine voice,--a graceful movement, charm!--But how often are we deceiv'd by them.--An instance of which I have lately seen in our old friend Sir Harry. No man on earth can pity that poor soul more than I do; yet I have laughed hours to think of his mistake. _So mild--so gentle_--said he, George, a week before his marriage, I should have said _execution_,--it is impossible to put her out of humour.--If I am not the happiest man breathing, it must be my own fault.