
Miss Herbert to Miss Fermer.
THE expected answer is arrived, Sophia; I may, perhaps, before I close this, be able to get permission to take a copy of it, which you shall have, in the mean time I will only tell you, Sommerville has set her Ladyship free:—in the most graceful and delicate manner a thing of that nature was capable of, he has declined the honour of her hand.
Lord Neville has now prevailed upon his adored Lady Mary, to fix the day which is to make him (he says) the happiest of

men, and I believe he says true; this day fortnight she has agreed to give him her hand, in the mean time, preparations of every kind are going on with the utmost expedition, and all is joy and festivity.
Even Sir Henry's spirits are much more chearful than they were; this her Ladyship is pleased to attribute to me; but I cannot take the merit of it, Sophia, though I confess I have obeyed her injunctions to the utmost, and he appears grateful for my attentions; I play to him, ling to him, and frequently walk with him before the rest of the family are stirring, for we are early risers: his conversation is highly entertaining; there is a softness a gentleness in his manners, which is extremely pleasing.
Do not be silly now, Sophia, and infer from what I have said, a thousand ridiculous things; I will at once convince you, you are mistaken, by telling you the cause of that melancholy to which he has so long been a prey, and you will confess there is little chance of his ever forming a second engagement with any of our sex.

A young Lady of large fortune saw him at Scarborough, about three years ago; she fell desperately in love with him, and tried every possible means to attract his attention, but in vain; she was not, it seems, remarkably handsome, though agreeable, and highly accomplished: every one saw the conquest he had gained, and many wondered how he could resist the temptation of so great a fortune; that alone was none to him, his own was abundantly sufficient to satisfy his ambition. They met again in London: still his behaviour was merely polite, and such as every woman of fashion is intitled to, from a man of breeding; she was taken extremely ill—the doctors declared her in the utmost danger; nothing they could prescribe gave her the smallest relief: she repeatedly said, she wisned not to live, life was insupportable to her, that she looked for
