'T was when Mr Dean was next in London, came a letter to me
Madam, I have great and urgent reason to wish the honour of meeting you and a half hour's conversation. Any place you may condescend to appoint will be perfectly agreeable and the favour prized by
Your obedient humble servant,
Esther Vanhomrigh
(who would not ask it unless it concerned Mrs Johnson as nearly as herself).
I broke my brains thinking, should I or should I not? Nor can I now unravel all the motives at work. But in two days' time I writ:--
Madam, I have a difficulty to come at the reason for your request, but am compelled by courtesy to appoint three o' the clock at the rooms of Mrs Dew, my old servant, at Kidder Street, No. 12. Your obt humble servant,
Esther Johnson.
Strange our names should be alike!
She was the first at the meeting. I ensured this, delaying my chair at the corner of Kidder Street till I saw her enter.