What would you say, my dearest? Be saucy then, as you call it; as saucy as you can.

Why then I am a little sullen at present, that I am;— And I am not fully convinced, whether it must be I that forgive you, or you me.-For, indeed, till I can recollect, I cannot think my fault so great in this point, that was a point of conscience to me, as (pardon me, sir) to stand in need of your forgiveness.

Well then, my dearest, said he, we will forgive one another: but take this with you, that it is my love to you that makes me more delicate than otherwise I should be; and you have inured me so much to a faultless conduct, that I can hardly bear with natural infirmities from you. -But, giving me another tap, get you gone; I leave you to your recollection; and let me know what fruits it produces for I must not be put off with a half-compliance; I must have your whole will with me, if possible.

So I went up, and recollecting everything, sacrificed to my sex, as Mr. B calls it, when he talks of a wife's reluctance to give up a favourite point; for I shed a good many tears, because my heart was set upon it; and this patriarchal retort hung heavy upon my mind.

And so, my dear father and mother, twenty charming ideas and pleasures, which I had formed to myself, had I obtained this permission, are vanished from me, and my measures are quite broken. But after my heart was relieved by my eye, I was lighter and easier. And the result is, we have heard of a good sort of woman, that is to be my poor baby's mother, when it comes; and so your kindly offered inquiries are needless, I believe.

I can't tell but this sort of rebuff might be a little necessary, after all; for I had forgotten, through Mr. B's past indulgence for so long a time, his injunctions and lessons and this awfully enforced remembrance shows me, that the rules he formerly prescribed, were not words of course, but that he intended to keep me up to the letter of them. So I must be a little more circumspect, I find that, than of late I thought I had occasion to be.

But he is the best and tenderest of husbands, for all this; and yet I was forced to accept of his forgiveness, and he did not think himself obliged to me for mine; and has carried his point all to nothing, as the racing gentlemen say. But I can see one thing, nevertheless, on this occasion, that the words command and obey are not quite blotted out of his vocabulary, as he said they should be.*

But, truly, I did not imagine before, that the husband had so very extensive a prerogative neither.-Nor do I believe that many ladies would sit down so satisfied with it, as I am forced to do.-Yet he vows that it must have been so, had he married a princess;-and that it is not because of the former inequality of condition between

us.

I can't tell what to say to that; but I fancy there would then have been some princely struggles between them.— It may be, if he could not have conquered, he would not have lived with her; or perhaps would have run into his wicked polygamy notions.

Mr. B, to my further great comfort, has just been telling me, how little a wife of his must expect from her tears; and has most nicely been distinguishing between. tears of sullenness and tears of penitence: The one, he declares, shall always meet with his indulgence and kindness, and never pass unrewarded: but the other, being the last resources of the sex, after they are disarmed of all others, and by which they too often, as he says, carry all their purposes, he will never suffer to have any force at all upon him.

Very heroic, truly-One stands a poor chance in a contest with such a husband. It must be all pure unmixed obedience and submission. And I find half the tears a poor wife might shed in matrimonial bickerings so frequent with some, even of those not unhappily married (as the world thinks), would be of no effect, were all men of his mind.

'Tis well for our sex in general, that there are not many

* See vol. ii. p. 95.

VOL. III.

E

husbands who distinguish thus nicely. For I doubt there are but very few so well entitled to their ladies' observances as Mr. B is to mine; and who would act so generously and so tenderly by a wife as he does, in every material instance on which the happiness of life depends.

But we are quite reconciled; although, as I said, upon his own terms: and so I can still style myself,

My dear honoured parents,

Your happy, as well as dutiful daughter,

P. B.

LETTER XLVIII.

Lady Davers to Mrs. B.

MY DEAR PAMELA,-I have sent you a present, the completest I could procure, of everything that may suit your approaching happy circumstance; as I hope it will be to you, and to us all: but it is with a hope annexed, that although both sexes are thought of in it, yet that you will not put us off with a girl: no, child, we will not permit, may we have our wills, that you shall think of giving us a girl, till you have presented us with half a dozen fine boys. For our line is gone so low, that we expect that human security from you in your first seven years, or we shall be disappointed, I can tell you that.

And now, Pamela, I will give you their names, if my brother and you approve of them: Your first shall be BILLY; my Lord Davers and the Earl of C― shall be godfathers; and it must be doubly god-mothered too, or I am afraid the countess and I shall fall out about it. Your second shall be DAVERS-be sure remember that; your third shall be CHARLEY; your fourth, JEMMY; your fifth, HARRY; your sixth, DUDLEY-if you will-and your girl, if you had not rather call it PAMELA, shall be BARBARA—

the rest you must name as you please.—And so, my dear, I wish all seven happily over with you.

I am glad you got safe to town; and long to hear of Miss Darnford's arrival, because I know you'll be out of your bias in your new settlement till then. She is a fine lady, and writes the most to my taste of any one of her sex, that I know, next to you. I wished she'd been so kind as to correspond with me. But be sure don't omit to give me the sequel of her sister's and Murray's affair, and what you think will please me in relation to her. You do well to save yourself the trouble of describing the town and the public places. We are no strangers to them; and they are too much our table-talk, when any country lady has for the first time been carried to town, and returned: Besides, what London affords is nothing that deserves mention, compared to what we have seen at Paris and at Versailles, and other of the French palaces. You exactly, therefore, hit our tastes, and answer our expectations, when you give us, in your peculiar manner, sentiments on what we may call the soul of things, and such characters as you draw with a pencil borrowed from the hand of Nature, intermingled with those fine lights and shades of reflections and observations, that make your pictures glow, and instruct as well as delight.

There, Pamela, is encouragement for you to proceed in obliging us. We are all of one mind in this respect; and more than ever, since we have seen your actions so well answer to your writings; and that theory and practice, with regard to every excellence that can adorn a lady, is the same thing with you.

We are pleased with your lawyers' characters. There are life and nature in them; but never avoid giving all the characters that occur to you, for that seems to be one of your talents and in the ugliest you can draw, there will be matter of instruction; especially as you seem naturally to fall upon such as are so general, that no one who converses but must see in them the picture of one or other he is acquainted with.

By this time, perhaps, Miss Darnford will be with you -our respects to her, if so-and you will have been at some of the theatrical entertainments: so will not want subjects to oblige us.-'Twas a good thought of your dear man's to carry you to see the several houses, and to make you a judge, by that means, of the disposition and fashion of everything in them. Tell him, I love him better and better. I am proud of my brother, and do nothing but talk of what a charming husband he makes. But then, he gives an example to all who know him and his uncontrollable temper (which makes against many of us), that it is possible for a good wife to make even a bad man a worthy husband; and this affords an instruction, which may stand all our sex in good stead.-But then they must have been cautious first, that they have chosen a man of natural good sense and good manners, and not a brutal or abandoned debauchee.

my

But hark ye me, my sweet girl, what have I done to you, that you won't write yourself sister to me? I could find in my heart to be angry with you on this account. Before last visit, indeed, I was scrupulous to subscribe myself so to you. But since I have seen myself so much surpassed in all manner of excellence, that I would take pleasure in the name, you assume a pride in your turn, and think it an undervaluing of yourself, I suppose, to call me so—ay, that's the thing, I doubt-although, I can tell you, I have endeavoured, by several regulations since my return (and the countess, too, keeps your example in distant view, as well as I), to be more worthy of the appellation. If, therefore, you would avoid the reproaches of secret pride, under the shadow of so remarkable a humility, for the future never omit subscribing, as I do, with great pleasure,

Your truly affectionate sister and friend,

B. DAVERS.

I always take it for granted, that my worthy brother sends his respects to us; as you must, that Lord Davers, the