1

New York, July 12 -1800

Write to me the instant you receive my letter, you would some
times say, “not you will write with more care.” I have just read it dear
Margaret, and will write though it should be but a little, to show you
how much I love to do what you wish. In truth I am not quite in a
writing time at present. I have been playing the housewife all day
and to exercise the pen seems awkward. But to speak my thoughts
to you, my dear Margaret has not since last winter been a task of
difficulty, and what is this but thinking on paper.
I was quite uneasy about Mrs. Scot and the infant, the day was so in-
tensely warm, it rejoiced me to hear that they did not suffer much.

How strange are your feelings, yet perhaps, I am wrong to say so,
perhaps they are exactly what I should have expected from your
previous resolutions. I cannot felicitate you on them, however, nor wish
their continuance, to me they are more intollerable than any others,
I even think them worse than actual pain; you must be different in
this respect, because you are so much more susceptible of painful
sensations than I am, and your present ones may in the long time
evolve themselves into that cheerful contentment which is allied to
happiness. I used to imagine your sister and yourself resembled in
some degree, and that time would increase the similarity, but my opinion has
since varied, and I mark more differences than resemblences. But
community of heart may exist where there is difference of character, for
it exists between you and me. I do not wonder at your propensity