They parted very good friends, and with great professions of esteem for each other.—­And as Mr. B. had undertaken to inspect into some exceptionable accounts and managements of her ladyship’s bailiff, one of her servants brought a letter for him on Monday last, wholly written on that subject.  But she was so considerate, as to send it unsealed, in a cover directed to me.  When I opened it, I was frightened to see it begin to Mr. B. and I hastened to find him—­“Dear Sir—­Here’s some mistake—­You see the direction is to Mrs. B.—­’Tis very plain—­But, upon my word, I have not read it.”—­“Don’t be uneasy, my love.—­I know what the subject must be; but I dare swear there is nothing, nor will there ever be, but what you or any body may see.”

He read it, and giving it to me, said, “Answer yourself the postscript, my dear.”  That was—­“If, Sir, the trouble I give you, is likely to subject you or your lady to uneasiness or apprehensions, I beg you will not be concerned in it.  I will then set about the matter myself; for my uncle I will not trouble; yet women enter into these particulars with as little advantage to themselves as inclination.”

I told him, I was entirely easy and unapprehensive; and, after all his goodness to me, should be so, if he saw the Countess every day.  “That’s kindly said, my dear; but I will not trust myself to see her every day, or at all, for the present.  But I shall be obliged to correspond with her for a month or so, on this occasion; unless you prohibit it; and it shall be in your power to do so.”

I said, with my whole heart, he might; and I should be quite easy in both their honours.

“Yet I will not,” said he, “unless you see our letters:  for I know she will always, now she has begun, send in a cover to you, what she will write to me, unsealed; and whether I am at home or abroad, I shall take it unkindly, if you do not read them.”

He went in, and wrote an answer, which he sent by the messenger; but would make me, whether I would or not, read it, and seal it up with his seal.  But all this needed not to me now, who think so much better of the lady than I did before; and am so well satisfied in his own honour and generous affection for me; for you saw, Madam, in what I wrote before, that he always loved me, though he was angry at times, at my change of temper, as he feared, not knowing that I was apprised of what had passed between him and the Countess.

I really am better pleased with his correspondence, than I should have been, had it not been carried on; because the servants, on both sides, will see, by my deportment on the occasion (and I will officiously, with a smiling countenance, throw myself in their observation), that it is quite innocent; and this may help to silence the mouths of those who have so freely censured their conduct.

Indeed, Madam, I think I have received no small good myself by that affair, which once lay so heavy upon me:  for I don’t believe I shall be ever jealous again; indeed I don’t think I shall.  And won’t that be an ugly foible overcome?  I see what may be done, in cases not favourable to our wishes, by the aid of proper reflection; and that the bee is not the only creature that may make honey out of the bitter flowers as well as the sweet.