Some Dæmon, the enemy of friendship, seems to have determined that
We shall not meet at Sheffield-place. I was fully resolved to make
amends for my lazy scruples, and to dine with you to-morrow; when I
received a letter this day from my father, which irresistibly draws
me to Beriton for about ten days. The above-mentioned Dæmon, though
he may defer my projects, shall not however disapoint them. Since you
intend to pass the winter in retirement, it will be a far greater
compliment to quit active, gay, political London, than the drowsy
desert London of the holydays. But I retract. What is both pleasing
& sincere, is above that prostituted word _compliment_. Believe me,
most sincerely yours.
_A propos_, I forgot the compliments of the season, &c. &c.
73.
_To his Stepmother._