I learn from the very obliging attention of a piece of wedding cake, which has been sent me in the names of M^r & M^rs Withering, that the happy knot is at length tied, & I should not have so long delayed to wish you joy upon it, if I had not been for some time ignorant whither

you might not be gone with the wedding folks. Accept dear Madam, my sincerest wishes, & earnest prayers, that all the happiness this uncertain state can afford may be their lot; unabated affection, health, prosperous circumstances & a promising offspring, & may you long enjoy the sight of all these blessings. I do not know what your own plans are, but I hope you will not long be separated from one another—Do let me hear from you soon . As to my own prospects they are very dark at present. The absence of three months (a long one I thought it) has not had the effect which
was

[fol 1^v] was hoped for from it in removing the unhappy alienation from me which has taken possession of his mind, & I fear I must at length be obliged to submit to the heart-breaking expedient of a separation. The state of irritation he is in when with me, evidently does him hurt, & if he is, which is certainly the case, much better at a distance from me, I must not any further attempt to keep ^him^. You will, my dear friend, enter into my feelings sufficiently without my dwelling upon them—On running over these sentences I find I have said he & him without mentioning M^r Barbauld, but that is ^all one,^ it can require no explanation—Since I began this letter, some days have passed, & I am now for a week at Westham with M^rs Gregory whom you know, at least by character.

She is mourning the loss of a beloved husband, a loss which I daresay she will never thoroughly get over, but she has good & promising children—For myself it is now quite determined. My brother & Charles both say I must not return to my own house, while M^r Barbauld is there—What plan I shall follow, where I shall be & where he will be I know not yet. I shall endeavour to keep up my spirits as well as I can, & must seek for something of employment & something of company, but I can form no scheme yet—I spent a day sometime ago at Hampstead
it

[fol 2^r] it was a pleasant day, for it was at the Carrs, but I looked with a wistful eye at your former habitation, & wished, selfishly wished, that you were there still. I came, literally, the day after the fair,

which had been a very rainy one, which hurt the sale of the things— Miss Baillie’s are returned to their house, but poor Joanna does not look well at all—— When you write to M^rs Withering pray give my affectionate Comp^ts; I hope to write myself after a while, but at present I do not know where they are.—Farewel my dear Madam; M^r Barbauld, if with me, would, I know, express his cordial regards, & in that would still unite with,