“Sir,—I am very much at a loss how to address you, not at all understanding the regular method of arranging such affairs; should the enclosed meet your approbation, you will entitle yourself to the never-ending gratitude of ——, I am afraid to say whether I am man or woman, if you insert it in your magazine. If truth has any claim on your attention, you will neither neglect this simple story, nor deny the “Pleasures of Hope” to one you have enamoured of them, and as possibly in your inexperienced days you may have been in the same predicament with myself.
| 44 | LITERARY REMINISCENCES AND |
“I have all the right in the world to beg your favour for ‘Poor Kate.’ By way of a bribe, I will tell you that I am a very woman, as you may perceive, by not being able to keep my own secret. I know the very name is, to the ears of a poet, what they say abracadabra is to the devil—a word of power at least; I am positive no poet could have imagined a ‘Gertrude,’ without thinking the whole sex very dear creatures.
“As a last resource I promise you, if you consent, to send you a very particular description of myself, for I often thought I should make an admirable heroine, as I am positive, he who could describe the fair maid of Wyoming has exhausted all his inventive powers on such a masterpiece.
“Women offended are said to be vindictive enemies, but should you neglect me, I promise you I shall only lose the great respect I should have for your taste and judgment otherwise. If I dared send you my address, I would request you to favour me with a few lines! Ah, how precious I should think them! more sacred than a bit of the true cross, or than you would regard a jawbone of the eleven thousand virgins.
