To Miss Montague, at Silleri.
Montreal, Dec. 18.
There is something, my dear Emily, in what you say as to the
delicacy of your situation; but, whilst you are so very exact in acting
up to it on one side, do you not a little overlook it on the other?
I am extremely unwilling to say a disagreable thing to you, but Miss
Fermor is too young as well as too gay to be a protection--the very
particular circumstance you mention makes Mr. Melmoth's the only house
in Canada in which, if I have any judgment, you can with propriety live
till your marriage takes place.
You extremely injure Sir George in supposing it possible he should
fail in his engagements: and I see with pain that you are more
quicksighted to his failings than is quite consistent with that
tenderness, which (allow me to say) he has a right to expect from you.
He is like other men of his age and fortune; he is the very man you so
lately thought amiable, and of whose love you cannot without injustice
have a doubt.
Though I approve your contempt of the false glitter of the world,
yet I think it a little strained at your time of life: did I not know
you as well as I do, I should say that philosophy in a young and
especially a female mind, is so out of season, as to be extremely
suspicious. The pleasures which attend on affluence are too great, and
too pleasing to youth, to be overlooked, except when under the
influence of a livelier passion.
Take care, my Emily; I know the goodness of your heart, but I also
know its sensibility; remember that, if your situation requires great
circumspection in your behaviour to Sir George, it requires much
greater to every other person: it is even more delicate than marriage
itself.
I shall expect you and Miss Fermor as soon as the roads are such
that you can travel agreably; and, as you object to Sir George as a
conductor, I will entreat Captain Fermor to accompany you hither.
I am, my dear,
Your most affectionate
E. Melmoth.