_From the same to the same._
Churchhill.
My dear Mother,—I am very glad to find that my description of Frederica
Vernon has interested you, for I do believe her truly deserving of your
regard; and when I have communicated a notion which has recently struck
me, your kind impressions in her favour will, I am sure, be heightened.
I cannot help fancying that she is growing partial to my brother. I so
very often see her eyes fixed on his face with a remarkable expression
of pensive admiration. He is certainly very handsome; and yet more,
there is an openness in his manner that must be highly prepossessing,
and I am sure she feels it so. Thoughtful and pensive in general, her
countenance always brightens into a smile when Reginald says anything
amusing; and, let the subject be ever so serious that he may be
conversing on, I am much mistaken if a syllable of his uttering escapes
her. I want to make him sensible of all this, for we know the power of
gratitude on such a heart as his; and could Frederica’s artless
affection detach him from her mother, we might bless the day which
brought her to Churchhill. I think, my dear mother, you would not
disapprove of her as a daughter. She is extremely young, to be sure,
has had a wretched education, and a dreadful example of levity in her
mother; but yet I can pronounce her disposition to be excellent, and
her natural abilities very good. Though totally without
accomplishments, she is by no means so ignorant as one might expect to
find her, being fond of books and spending the chief of her time in
reading. Her mother leaves her more to herself than she did, and I have
her with me as much as possible, and have taken great pains to overcome
her timidity. We are very good friends, and though she never opens her
lips before her mother, she talks enough when alone with me to make it
clear that, if properly treated by Lady Susan, she would always appear
to much greater advantage. There cannot be a more gentle, affectionate
heart; or more obliging manners, when acting without restraint; and her
little cousins are all very fond of her.
Your affectionate daughter,
C. VERNON