LETTER XXX.

TO MISS LUCY FREEMAN.

NEW HAVEN.

I believe your spirits need a cordial indeed, my dear Lucy, after
drawing so dreadful a portrait of my swain. But I call him mine no
longer. I renounce him entirely. My friends shall be gratified; and if
their predictions are verified, I shall be happy in a union with a man
of their choice. General Richman and lady have labored abundantly to
prove that my ruin was inevitable if I did not immediately break all
intercourse with Major Sanford. I promised a compliance with their
wishes, and have accomplished the task, though a hard one I found it.
Last Thursday he was here, and desired leave to spend an hour with me. I
readily consented, assuring my friends it should be the last hour which
I would ever spend in his company.

He told me that he was obliged to leave town for a few days; and as I
should probably see Mr. Boyer before his return, he could not depart in
peace without once more endeavoring to interest me in his favor, to
obtain some token of esteem, some glimpse of hope that I would not
utterly reject him, to support him in his absence. I thanked him for the
polite attention he had paid me since our acquaintance, told him that I
should ever retain a grateful sense of his partiality to me, that he
would ever share my best wishes, but that all connection of the kind to
which he alluded must from that time forever cease.

He exerted all his eloquence to obtain a retraction of that sentence,
and ran with the greatest volubility through all the protestations,