II

The Mystery of Stella


_This paper have I wrote for certain grave considerations which make me
suppose it well it were one day placed in the hands of the Dean. 'Tis,
however, possible I may destroy it, but this time shall determine ere my
death. Writ an: 1727 by me_, ESTHER JOHNSON.

When the Dean paid his last visit to London, an: 1726, he writ thus in a
letter directed to Mrs Dingley, but for her and me:--

"Farewell, my dearest lives and delights I love you better than ever, as
hope saved, and ever will. I can count on nothing but MD's love and
kindness, and so, farewell, dearest MD. PRESTO."

So he signs himself, and so it seems the old screen will still be kept up
and the letters to me wrote to her also, and in the child's talk that
pleaseth him, lest any in the world suspect the famous divine hath a man's
heart. But hath he? This I have not known, nor shall. Let me tell my own
heart yet again how deep my debt to him, remembering the sickly child of
Moor Park, to whom he brought not alone learning but companionship, and
all the joy known to her childhood. For it pleased Dr Swift, then a young
man, to condescend to a child's humours, to solace her solitary hours,
forsook as she was of her mother's company, and not alone to teach her to
write, but all store of knowledge. And Dr Swift hath since been pleased to
acknowledge that, having instilled in this poor child the principles of
honour and virtue, she hath not swerved from them in any passage of her
life.