From the same to the same

Churchhill.

My dear Mother — I am very glad to find that my description of Frederica Vernon has interested you, for I do believe her truly deserving of your regard; and when I have communicated a notion which has recently struck me, your kind impressions in her favour will, I am sure, be heightened. I cannot help fancying that she is growing partial to my brother. I so very often see her eyes fixed¹ on his face with a remarkable² expression of pensive³ admiration⁴. He is certainly very handsome; and yet more, there is an openness in his manner that must be highly prepossessing, and I am sure she feels it so. Thoughtful and pensive in general, her countenance⁵ always brightens into a smile when Reginald says anything amusing; and, let the subject be ever so serious that he may be conversing⁶ on, I am much mistaken if a syllable⁷ of his uttering escapes her. I want to make him sensible of all this, for we know the power of gratitude⁸ on such a heart as his; and could Frederica’s artless affection detach him from her mother, we might bless the day which brought her to Churchhill. I think, my dear mother, you would not disapprove⁹ of her as a daughter. She is extremely young, to be sure, has had a wretched education, and a dreadful example of levity¹⁰ in her mother; but yet I can pronounce her disposition¹¹ to be excellent, and her natural abilities very good. Though totally without

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