Transcription

Paris Oct. 19th. I have been expecting to hear from you my dearest Dot, ever since I quitted England, but my hopes have been disappointed & not one letter have I received from you, since I have been at Paris. However as it is one of the precepts of our religion to return good for evil you shall not find my want- in essential a maxim & notwithstanding your silence I will make one more attempt to draw you in to answer me by writing to you again for the fourth time, trusting that my goodness will make your crime appear even in your eyes of still greater magnitude. Our stay is still uncertain. Lord Castlereagh now wishes us to return with him, & as the conferences seem likely to [[foreign:French]] "trainez en longue" [[/foreign]] Heaven alone can tell when that will be. I have everything here I can desire to make my sojourn delightful. Both Mr & Mrs Arbuthnot are kindness itself to me, & the inhabitants of this town, be they English, natives or foreigners, seem to have entered into a conspiracy if I may use the term, to overwhelm me with goodness. In short I never knew what success was till I cam here. Indeed so much so that I am sometimes annoyed at it & would give the world to escape from some of my Royal pursuers, or Diplomatic adorers. Yet notwithstanding all this, I begin to have the [[foreign: French]] "maladie du pays" [[/foreign]] very strong upon me, & to desire most anxiously to return home. I am so dreadfully idle here that whole days pass without my having been in any degree occupied.