Another letter was to be sent, or had been sent, to her aunt Hervey, to
which she hoped an answer.
Yet sometimes I think that fainter and fainter would have been her
procrastinations, had I been a man of courage--but so fearful was I of
offending!
A confounded thing! The man to be so bashful; the woman to want so much
courting!--How shall two such come together--no kind mediatress in the
way?
But I must be contented. 'Tis seldom, however, that a love so ardent as
mine, meets with a spirit so resigned in the same person. But true love,
I am now convinced, only wishes: nor has it any active will but that of
the adored object.
But, O the charming creature, again of herself to mention London! Had
Singleton's plot been of my own contriving, a more happy expedient could
not have been thought of to induce her to resume her purpose of going
thither; nor can I divine what could be her reason for postponing it.
I enclose the letter from Joseph Leman, which I mentioned to thee in
mine of Monday last,* with my answer to it. I cannot resist the vanity
that urges me to the communication. Otherwise, it were better, perhaps,
that I suffer thee to imagine that this lady's stars fight against
her, and dispense the opportunities in my favour, which are only the
consequences of my own invention.