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ment, whilft the fnow and hail are driving against my little window, I find myself restored to you and to myself. The moment I entered, your figure prefented itself before my eyes, and the remembrance of you filled my heart. Oh! my Charlotte, the facred remembrance! the

tender recollections !

Gracious

Heaven! restore to me that firft mo

ment in which I beheld her!

Could you but fee me, my dear Charlotte, in that vortex where every thing diffipates and nothing touches me! My fenfes are dried up; my heart is at no time full; I never shed the foft tears of tenderness; no

thing, nothing touches me. I ftand, as it were, before the rareefhow; I fee the little puppets move, and I say to myself it is a deception of optics. I am amufed with thefe puppets, or rather I am myself one of them. I take the hand of the man who ftands next to me, I feel that it is made of wood, I fhudder and draw mine back. I have found but one being here that is of the fame order with you, a Mifs B. She resembles you, my dear Charlotte, if indeed it is poffible for

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any

Ah!" you

will fay" he has learnt to make ele

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truth in your obfervation. I have been prodigiously agreeable lately, not having it in my power to be

any thing better. I have a great

deal of wit too, and the women say that nobody understands better how to deal out panegyric-" and lies," you will add, for one always accompanies the other. But I meant to talk to you of Mifs B. She has great fenfibility, and a fuperior understanding; her fine blue eyes fhew evident marks of both. Her rank is a burthen to her, and gratifies no one paffion of her foul; fhe would gladly leave this crowd; and we often indulge our imagination in talking,

talking, for hours together, of happiness in retired and country scenes, and near you, my dear Charlotte;for fhe knows you, fhe does homage to you; but the homage is not ex. acted; he loves you; and takes great pleasure in hearing me talk of you.

Oh! why am I not at your feet in your favourite little room, and the dear children playing round us! If their noise became troublesome to you, I would tell them a ftory, and they would crowd about. me with filent attention. The fun is fetting; his laft rays fhine on the fnow which covers the face of the country; the ftorm

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ftorm is over, and I-muft return to my dungeon. Adieu !-Is Albert with you, and what is he to you? Fool that I am! fhould I afk this queftion?

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LETTER XLIII.

February 17.

UR minifter and I don't seem

as if we should continue much

longer together: his manner of treating a fubject, and of doing bufinefs, is so abfurd, that I cannot help contradicting him very often, and doing things my own way; and then,

of

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