(Enclosed Letter.)


_To Henry Colden_

Tuesday Morning.

You went away this morning before I was awake. I think you might have
stayed to breakfast; yet, on second thoughts, your early departure was
best. _Perhaps_ it was so. You have made me very thoughtful to-day.
What passed last night has left my mind at no liberty to read and to
scribble as I used to do. How your omens made me shudder!

I want to see you. Can't you come again this evening? but no; you must
not. I must not be an encroacher. I must judge of others, and of their
claims upon your company, by myself and my own claims. Yet I should be
glad to see that creature who would dare to enter into competition with
_me_.

But I may as well hold my peace. My rights will not be admitted by
others. Indeed, no soul but yourself can know them in all their extent,
and, what is all I care for, _you_ are far from being strictly just
to me!

Don't be angry, Hal. Skip the last couple of sentences, or think of
them as not mine: I disown them. To-morrow, at six, the fire shall be
stirred, the candles lighted, and the sofa placed in order due. I shall be
at home to _nobody; mind that_.