MY dear Madam,
Inclosed I send the ordinary draft. As you have never had reason to doubt my sincerity, you will believe me, when I say that I feel myself ashamed of my real and apparent negligence, and deeply concerned at the subject of your last letter. That subject is of such melancholy and weighty import, that though I fear I cannot say anything very satisfactory, I must beg leave to defer, two or three posts longer, the taking any farther notice of it. Allow me only to explain, what I mean by my apparent negligence. Your former letter was delivered to me while I was abroad at dinner, and when I returned home very late at night, I locked it up without having examined the contents. The next morning it was impossible for me to find it or to recollect how I had disposed of it: and I vainly and indolently delayed writing from post to post, in hopes that I might accidentally stumble upon it.—Mr. H. is probably at or near Bath. I am sorry to hear so indifferent an account of Mrs. H.
I am, Dear Madam,
Most truly yours,
E. Gibbon.
If there was anything in your former which you have not said in your last letter, may I beg you to repeat it. I am perfectly well, and shall pass my holidays in town.
271.
To his Stepmother.
Bentinck Street, 3rd January, 1776.
Dear Madam,