ABSTRACT

My Fanny entreats to know the subject of my late uneasiness — I see she is alarmed, & cannot therefore hesitate — yet it is difficult to me to speak it even to her — The enclosed letter 2 which I received above 3 weeks ago will explain all, & my dearest Fanny will spare me the pain of commenting upon it — the various deeply unpleasant feelings it has occasioned me she will be but too able to imagine — yet Heaven knows how far more poignant those feelings wd have been only four years ago — My kind & excellent Brother concurred in the ideas & sentiments this letter produced in me — He wrote immediately as I did, all we mutually thought could lead Major P. 3 to relinquish his plan — but, at the end of a fortnight, on Saturday, 4 the same morning on which I ended my last letter 5 (& happily I had already ended it) we received news wch at least terminated the suspence I had been enduring — this came in a letter from the Major to James, written with the same lightness as the enclosed — He [James] has since heard from Mr Marsd<en> 6 that the step had been taken & the resignation accepted, before <we> were informed of its being in agitation.