I am afraid we should find in the best characters, if we withdrew the veil, a mixture of errors and inconsistencies, which would greatly lessen our veneration. Papa has been reading me a wise lecture, this morning, on playing the fool: I reminded him, that I was now arrived at years of _indiscretion_; that every body must have their day; and that those who did not play the fool young, ran a hazard of doing it when it would not half so well become them. _A propos_ to playing the fool, I am strongly inclined to believe I shall marry. Fitzgerald is so astonishingly pressing--Besides, some how or other, I don't feel happy without him: the creature has something of a magnetic virtue; I find myself generally, without knowing it, on the same side the room with him, and often in the next chair; and lay a thousand little schemes to be of the same party at cards. I write pretty sentiments in my pocket-book, and carve his name on trees when nobody sees me: did you think it possible I could be such an ideot? I am as absurd as even the gentle love-sick Emily. I am thinking, my dear, how happy it is, since most human beings differ so extremely one from another, that heaven has given us the same variety in our tastes. Your brother is a divine fellow, and yet there is a sauciness about Fitzgerald which pleases me better; as he has told me a thousand times, he thinks me infinitely more agreable than Emily. Adieu! I am going to Quebec. Yours, A. Fermor. LETTER 140. To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall. May 20, Evening. _Io triumphe!_ A ship from England! You can have no idea of the universal transport at the sight; the whole town was on the beach, eagerly gazing at the charming stranger, who danced gaily on the waves, as if conscious of the pleasure she inspired. If our joy is so great, who preserve a correspondence with Europe, through our other colonies, during the winter, what must that of the French have been, who were absolutely shut up six months from the rest of the world? I can scarce conceive a higher delight than they must have felt at being thus restored to a communication with mankind. The letters are not delivered; our servant stays for them at the post-office; we expect him every moment: if I have not volumes from you, I shall be very angry. He comes. Adieu! I have not patience to wait their being brought up stairs. Yours, A. Fermor. They are here; six letters from you; I shall give three of them to Emily to read, whilst I read the rest: you are very good, Lucy, and I will never call you lazy again. LETTER 141. To Miss Fermor, at Silleri. Pall Mall, April 8. Whilst I was sealing my letter, I received yours of the 1st of February. I am excessively alarmed, my dear, at the account it gives me of Miss Montague's having broke with her lover, and of my brother's extreme affection for her.