Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod
My Dear Bell--I am much obliged by your kind expressions for my little present.I hope soon to send you something better, and gloves at the same time; for Sabre has been brought to the point by an alarm for the Yorkshire baronet that I mentioned, as showing symptoms of the tender passion for my fortune.The friends on both sides being satisfied with the match, it will take place as soon as some preliminary arrangements are made.When we are settled, I hope your mother will allow you to come and spend some time with us at our country-seat in Berkshire; and I shall be happy to repay all the expenses of your journey, as a jaunt to England is what your mother would, I know, never consent to pay for.
It is proposed that, immediately after the ceremony, we shall set outfor France, accompanied by my brother, where we are to be soon after joined at Paris by some of the Argents, who, I can see, think Andrew worth the catching for Miss.My father and mother will then return to Scotland; but whether the Doctor will continue to keep his parish, or give it up to Mr.Snodgrass, will depend greatly on the circumstances in which he finds his parishioners.This is all the domestic intelligence I have got to give, but its importance will make up for other deficiencies.
As to the continuance of our discoveries in London, I know not well what to say.Every day brings something new, but we lose the sense of novelty.Were a fire in the same street where we live, it would no longer alarm me.A few nights ago, as we were sitting in the parlour after supper, the noise of an engine passing startled us all; we ran to the windows--there was haste and torches, and the sound of other engines, and all the horrors of a conflagration reddening the skies.My father sent out the footboy to inquire where it was; and when the boy came back, he made us laugh, by snapping his fingers, and saying the fire was not worth so much-- although, upon further inquiry, we learnt that the house in which it originated was burnt to the ground.You see, therefore, how the bustle of this great world hardens the sensibilities, but I trust its influence will never extend to my heart.
The principal topic of conversation at present is about the queen.The Argents, who are our main instructors in the proprieties of London life, say that it would be very vulgar in me to go to look at her, which I am sorry for, as I wish above all things to see a personage so illustrious by birth, and renowned by misfortune.The Doctor and my mother, who are less scrupulous, and who, in consequence, somehow, by themselves, contrive to see, and get into places that are inaccessible to all gentility, have had a full view of her majesty.My father has since become her declared partisan, and my mother too has acquired a leaning likewise towards her side of the question; but neither of them will permit the subject to be spoken of before me, as they consider it detrimental to good morals.I, however, read the newspapers.
What my brother thinks of her majesty's case is not easy to divine; but Sabre is convinced of the queen's guilt, upon some private and authenticinformation which a friend of his, who has returned from Italy, heard when travelling in that country.This information he has not, however, repeated to me, so that it must be very bad.We shall know all when the trial comes on.In the meantime, his majesty, who has lived in dignified retirement since he came to the throne, has taken up his abode, with rural felicity, in a cottage in Windsor Forest; where he now, contemning all the pomp and follies of his youth, and this metropolis, passes his days amidst his cabbages, like Dioclesian, with innocence and tranquillity, far from the intrigues of courtiers, and insensible to the murmuring waves of the fluctuating populace, that set in with so strong a current towards "the mob- led queen," as the divine Shakespeare has so beautifully expressed it.
