If I must resign these favorite amusements, let
me enjoy as large a share as possible till the time arrives. I must
repair to the toilet, and adorn for a new conquest the person of
ELIZA WHARTON.
LETTER XXXI.
TO MISS ELIZA WHARTON.
HARTFORD.
I am very happy to find you are in so good spirits, Eliza, after parting
with your favorite swain; for I perceive that he is really the favorite
of your fancy, though your heart cannot esteem him; and, independent of
that, no sensations can be durable.
I can tell you some news of this strange man. He has arrived, and taken
possession of his seat. Having given general invitations, he has been
called upon and welcomed by most of the neighboring gentry. Yesterday he
made an elegant entertainment. Friend George (as you call him) and I
were of the number who had cards. Twenty-one couple went, I am told. We
did not go. I consider my time too valuable to be spent in cultivating
acquaintance with a person from whom neither pleasure nor improvement is
to be expected. His profuseness may bribe the unthinking multitude to
show him respect; but he must know that, though
"Places and honors have been bought for gold,
Esteem and love were never to be sold."
I look upon the vicious habits and abandoned character of Major Sanford
to have more pernicious effects on society than the perpetrations of the
robber and the assassin.
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