_Coke Clifton to The Honourable Mrs. Clifton_
_London, Dover Street_
I write to you, dear and honoured madam, with a grateful and happy
heart, to thank you for a project so maternally and wisely conceived in
my favour, and of which I have just been informed, by the frank-hearted
and lovely Anna St. Ives. Of all the blessings for which, madam, I hold
myself indebted to you, this last, of discovering and endeavouring to
secure for your thankful son a gem so precious, a lady so above all
praise, I esteem to be the greatest.
You, dear madam, are acquainted with the propriety with which she
thinks and acts, on every occasion; and I have no doubt will join with
me, in applauding the entire undisguisedness of relating all that had
passed, which appeared to her delicate mind at this moment to be
absolutely necessary.
After obtaining her consent for that purpose, I have spoken to Sir
Arthur; who, at my request, has promised immediately to write to you.
And, it being a project, dear madam, a kind one, of your own forming, I
have no fear that it should be discountenanced by you. My only doubt is
of delay. Let me entreat you, my dear mother, to remove all impediments
with every possible speed; and not to lose a moment in writing to me,
as soon as you and Sir Arthur have arranged the business, that I may
solicit her, from whom I am certain to receive all possible bliss, to
name a time, when suspense shall joyfully end.
Do not, dear madam, let impatience seem a fault in me. Remember the
lady; who she is, and all she is; and think, if her perfections could
make the impression which they seem to have done upon your heart, what
must they have made upon mine! I, who, with all the fire of youth and
constitutional eagerness, in consequence of your own wise plan, am
become a wishing and expecting lover!
My sister, I am sure, is too generous, the happiness of her friend and
brother being pledged, not to join me in the request I now make: and I
certainly will not forget a kindness which, I acknowledge, I know not
how I shall ever repay.