Chapter 33

"I suppose, by your non-appearance, that the phil_a_sophy of my note, and the previous silence of the writer, have put or kept you in _humeur_. Never mind--it is hardly worth while.

"This day have I received information from my man of law of the _non_--and never likely to be--performance of purchase by Mr. Claughton, of _im_pecuniary memory. He don't know what to do, or when to pay; and so all my hopes and worldly projects and prospects are gone to the devil. He (the purchaser, and the devil too, for aught I care,) and I, and my legal advisers, are to meet to-morrow, the said purchaser having first taken special care to enquire 'whether I would meet him with temper?'--Certainly. The question is this--I shall either have the estate back, which is as good as ruin, or I shall go on with him dawdling, which is rather worse. I have brought my pigs to a Mussulman market. If I had but a wife now, and children, of whose paternity I entertained doubts, I should be happy, or rather fortunate, as Candide or Scarmentado. In the mean time, if you don't come and see me, I shall think that Sam.'s bank is broke too; and that you, having assets there, are despairing of more than a piastre in the pound for your dividend. Ever," &c.

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

"July 11. 1814.

"You shall have one of the pictures. I wish you to send the proof of 'Lara' to Mr. Moore, 33. Bury Street, _to-night_, as he leaves town to-morrow, and wishes to see it before he goes[40]; and I am also willing to have the benefit of his remarks. Yours," &c.

[Footnote 40: In a note which I wrote to him, before starting, next day, I find the following:--"I got Lara at three o'clock this morning--read him before I slept, and was enraptured. I take the proofs with me."]

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

"July 18. 1814.

"I think _you_ will be satisfied even to _repletion_ with our northern friends[41], and I won't deprive you longer of what I think will give you pleasure; for my own part, my modesty, or my vanity, must be silent.

"P.S. If you could spare it for an hour in the evening, I wish you to send it up to Mrs. Leigh, your neighbour, at the London Hotel, Albemarle Street."

[Footnote 41: He here refers to an article in the number of the Edinburgh Review, just then published (No. 45.), on The Corsair and Bride of Abydos.]

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