Is there any service in my power to do them, or any of them? Command me,
good Miss Byron, if there be: my Lord W---- and I are one. Our influence
is not small.--Make me still more happy, in the power of serving any one
favoured by you.
You oppress me, sir, by your goodness!--I cannot speak my grateful
sensibilities.
Will you, my dear Mr. Reeves, will you, madam, (to my cousin,) employ me
in any way that I can be of use to you, either abroad or at home? Your
acquaintance has given me great pleasure. To what a family of worthies
has this excellent young lady introduced me!
O, sir! said Mrs. Reeves, tears running down her cheeks, that you were
not to leave people whom you have made so happy in the knowledge of the
best of men!
Indispensable calls must be obeyed, my dear Mrs. Reeves. If we cannot be
as happy as we wish, we will rejoice in the happiness we can have. We
must not be our own carvers.--But I make you all serious. I was
enumerating, as I told you, my present felicities: I was rejoicing in
your friendships. I have joy; and, I presume to say, I will have joy.
There is a bright side in every event; I will not lose sight of it: and
there is a dark one; but I will endeavour to see it only with the eye of
prudence, that I may not be involved by it at unawares. Who that is not
reproached by his own heart, and is blessed with health, can grieve for
inevitable evils; evils that can be only evils as we make them so?
Forgive my seriousness: my dear friends, you make me grave. Favour me, I
beseech you, my good Miss Byron, with one lesson: we shall be too much
engaged, perhaps, by and by.
He led me (I thought it was with a cheerful air; but my cousins both say,
his eyes glistened) to the harpsichord: He sung unasked, but with a low
voice; and my mind was calmed. O, Lucy! How can I part with such a man?
How can I take my leave of him?--But perhaps he has taken his leave of me
already, as to the solemnity of it, in the manner I have recited.