After some thought I have decided once and for all that we
must hold no further communication. The more I consider the
matter the more I am convinced that there must be an end
to our acquaintance. Had you been uniformly faithful to me
throughout these two years you might now have some ground
for accusing me of heartlessness; but if you calmly consider
what I bore during the period of your desertion, and how I
passively put up with your courtship of another without once
interfering, you will, I think, own that I have a right to
consult my own feelings when you come back to me again. That
these are not what they were towards you may, perhaps, be a
fault in me, but it is one which you can scarcely reproach
me for when you remember how you left me for Thomasin.
The little articles you gave me in the early part of our
friendship are returned by the bearer of this letter. They
should rightly have been sent back when I first heard of
your engagement to her.