I will treat you, my dear Letty, like a lady for once, and write to you
upon blue-edged paper, because you have been ill: if you should be well
before you receive this, I shall repent of the extravagance of my
friendship. I believe it was you--or my aunt, the teller of all good
things--who told me of a lady who took a long journey to see her sister,
who she heard was very ill; but, unfortunately, the sister was well
before she got to her journey's end, and she was so provoked, that she
quarrelled with her well sister, and would never have anything more to
do with her.
You will look very blank when you come back from the sea, and find what
doings there have been at Black Castle in your absence. Anna was
extremely sorry that she could not see you again before she left
Ireland; but you will soon be in the same kingdom again, and _that is
one great point gained_, as Mr. Weaver, a travelling astronomical
lecturer, who carried the universe about in a box, told us. "Sir," said
he to my father, "when you look at a map, do you know that the east is
always on your right hand, and the west on your left?"--"Yes," replied
my father, with a very modest look, "I believe I do."--"Well," said the
man of learning, "_that's one great point gained._"
_To_ MRS. RUXTON.