“I thought I should see thy name on poor dear Miss Mitford’s Committee. What a sad tale she has to tell! How she has been tried! And what a daughter she has been to a most unworthy father! I know no one like her in self-sacrifice and patient endurance. Surely, under such circumstances, the creditors will take less than their due, and wait for the rest till she can pay it. So few persons like to subscribe to pay debts, that this debt of £800 or £900 will hang, I fear, like a millstone over the subscription. But I forget—this debt paid, she may, perhaps, by the labours of her pen, support herself without help. And I do hope the Queen will double her pension.
“In the meanwhile, I am begging for her. I intend to raise £20, and to get more if I can. I shall ask a sovereign from eighteen persons—I have in hand seven already—and then send the £20 up to some one, or pay it into Gurney’s bank, to be remitted to her bankers. In such a case, and in many cases, begging is a Christian duty. She has written to me and sent me the papers to distribute.
“I think she would have gained more by an
| 244 | MISS MITFORD. |
