Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/28

28 with a reference to some opinions just then pronounced by the same critical authority, and then ran on in a strain which shows that all her child like simplicity of feeling, and thoughtful light-heartedness, had been unchangeably preserved.

" "Are you pleased with me? Am I not happy? 'An elegance of mind peculiarly graceful in a female;'—is not this the praise you would have wished me to obtain? Has all your trouble been thrown away? It has always been my most earnest wish to do something that might prove your time had not been altogether lost. To excel is to show my grateful affection to you. The poem is now entirely finished. I hope you will like 'Adelaide.' I wished to portray a gentle soft character, and to paint in her the most delicate love. I fear her dying of it is a little romantic; yet, what was I to do, as her death must terminate it? Pray do you think, as you are the model of my, I hope, charming heroine, you could have contrived to descend to the grave Not only is the second canto concluded, but I have written all the minor pieces I intend inserting. And now, dear cousin, I do so long to be with you, if it were only to show you how amiable I intend being. I will not be passionate; and, as to Elizabeth, I will be so good-natured—I will be to her what you have been to me. . . . I never knew how delightful it was to be at home until I was away. It is all very pleasant to go out for a day or two. I do not mean to say I do not like it, but when it comes to be week upon week and