She has received an answer from Miss Howe, to the letter written to her from St. Alban's.*
* See Vol. II. Letter XLVIII.
Whatever are the contents, I know not; but she was drowned in tears on the perusal of it. And I am the sufferer.
Miss Howe is a charming creature too; but confoundedly smart and spiritful. I am a good deal afraid of her. Her mother can hardly keep her in. I must continue to play off old Antony, by my honest Joseph, upon that mother, in order to manage that daughter, and oblige my beloved to an absolute dependence upon myself.*
* See Vol. I. Letter XXXI.
Mrs. Howe is impatient of contradiction. So is Miss. A young lady who is sensible that she has all the materials requisites herself, to be under maternal controul;—fine ground for a man of intrigue to build upon!—A mother over-notable; a daughter over-sensible; and their Hickman, who is—over-neither: but merely a passive—
Only that I have an object still more desirable—!
Yet how unhappy, that these two young ladies lived so near each other, and are so well acquainted! Else how charmingly might I have managed them both!
But one man cannot have every woman worth having—Pity though—when the man is such a VERY clever fellow!