To: Henrietta St John, afterwards Lady Luxborough. n.p. 23 July [n.s.] 1720. Text: MS, BL Add. 34196, fol. 11.

I receiv’d the other day two pleasures att once which touch’d me very sensibly. the arrival of my B, ¹ and y^r letter. I am too just, my dear Girl, not to be persuaded of your sincerity, and therefore I take all the expressions which flow from y^r pen to flow from y^r heart. be just in your turn, and be persuaded y^r I love you entirely. when I may be able to tell you so by word of mouth I know not. my merit falls very short of what y^r friendship for me represents it to y^r imagination; but such as it is, whether it will keep me out or bring me home is perhaps very uncertain, in the first case my principal and almost my only concern will be y^e absence from my family, & y^e impossibility of doing it much service. all other considerations weigh little with me.