Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/385

Rh case the matter should be desperate, I would have you advise, if they come to town, that they should be lodged in some healthy airy part, and not in the deanery; which besides, you know, cannot but be a very improper thing for that house to breathe her last in.

In another of September 12, 1727, he says, "By Dr. Sheridan's frequent letters, I am, every post, expecting the death of a friend, with whose loss I shall have very little regard for the few years that nature may leave me, I desire to know where my two friends lodge. I gave a caution to Mrs. Brent, that it might not be in domo decani, quoniam hoc minime decet, uti manifestum est: habeo enim malignos qui sinistre hoc interpretabuntur, si eveniat (quod Deus avertat) ut illic moriatur ." Thus predetermined as he was in this point, and satisfied that Mrs. Johnson perfectly acquiesced in it, nothing could have astonished him more than such a proposal. He thought it both unkind and unreasonable in his bosom friend to make such a request; which, if granted, could be of no use to her when dead, and might be the cause of much uneasiness to him the survivor. The pretence she made with regard to her character, he knew could be only a pretence, as no woman living had a more unblemished reputation, being considered by all who knew her as a perfect pattern of modesty to her sex, and so reported in the world. It might therefore be imputed, with probability, to no other cause