My grandmamma withdrew her fond arms: Take her, take her, said she, each
in turn: but I think I never can part with her again.
My uncle saluted me, and bid me very kindly welcome home--so did every
one.
How can I return the obligations which the love of all my friends lays
upon me? To be good, to be grateful, is not enough; since that one ought
to be for one's own sake. Yet how can I be even grateful to them with
half a heart? Ah, Lady G----, you bid me be free in my confessions. You
promise to look my letters over before you read them to any body; and to
mark passages proper to be kept to yourself--Pray do.
Mr. Greville and Mr. Fenwick were here separately, an hour ago: I thanked
them for their civility on the road, and not ungraciously, as Mr.
Greville told my uncle, as to him. He was not, he said, without hopes,
yet; since I knew not how to be ungrateful. Mr. Greville builds, as he
always did, a merit on his civility; and by that means sinks, in the
narrower lover, the claim he might otherwise make to the title of the
generous neighbour.
***
Miss Orme has just been here. She could not help throwing in a word for
her brother.
You will guess, my dear Lady G----, at the subject of our conversations
here, and what they will be, morning, noon, and night, for a week to
come. My grandmamma is better in health than I have known her for a year
or two past.
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