chateau de rivieres.

We are got back to this place some weeks sooner than the time fixed on for that purpose. – Our hasty return was occasioned by the unexpected arrival of the Marquess de Riviere's eldest son, who dispatched a courier to inform his parents, whose eagerness to embrace him would admit of no delay. I think I foresee that this will be a means of our returning to England earlier than I imagined we should. – I shall then have the felicity of again be holding my Rhoda, the friend of my earliest days. Mr Fitzmaurice does all in his power to accelerate that period, for reasons to which I presume you are no stranger; as he tells me, he has informed Mr. Montgomery of his present happiness, and future prospects; and the latter, knowing the friendship that subsists between/ you and me, has, of course, not withheld from you a piece of information which is generally esteemed so very important. – Indeed the circumstance itself is of the utmost importance to the parties concerned, since it forms either the happiness or misery of their whole lives. – But where the choice of the heart is approved by the judgment, there can be little reason to dread the latter consequence. Perfectly satisfied in this point, Rhoda, I scorn the paltry affectation of gravity and thoughtfulness which some deem necessary, and which I have oft en seen assumed even by women of sense, for a few weeks previous to their union. Yet when I say this, I do not mean to become an advocate for rash, inconsiderate marriages; on the contrary, I do most heartily concur in the idea of that elegant and fascinating writer, Doctor Watts, in a poem describing the couples who may or may not rationally expect happiness in that state, he says,