To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall.
Silleri, June 10, Evening.
My poor Rivers! I think I felt more from his going than even from Emily’s: whilst he was here, I seemed not quite to have lost her: I now feel doubly the loss of both.
He begged me to shew attention to Madame Des Roches, who he assured me merited my tenderest friendship; he wrote to her, and has left the letter open in my care: it is to thank her, in the most affectionate terms, for her politeness and friendship, as well to himself as to his Emily; and to offer her his best services in England in regard to her estate, part of which some people here have very ungenerously applied for a grant of, on pretence of its not being all settled according to the original conditions.
He owned to me, he felt some regret at leaving this amiable woman in Canada, and at the idea of never seeing her more.
I love him for this sensibility; and for his delicate attention to one whose disinterested affection for him most certainly deserves it.
Fitzgerald is below, he does all possible to console me for the loss of my friends; but indeed, Lucy, I feel their absence most severely.
I have an opportunity of sending your brother’s letter to Madame Des Roches, which I must not lose, as they are not very frequent: ’tis by a French gentleman who is now with my father.
Adieu! your faithful,
A. Fermor.
Twelve at night.