I am mortified by the reflection of my want of even civility which alone ought to have induced an answer to your first letter--I entreat you to think it did not spring from any lack of friendship, but to attribute to the right cause, which is that I did not then feel exactly in that frame of mind which is indispensibly [sic] necessary to me when I would write you a letter--I confess I wrote John two or three letters since I have written you one, but then you must recollect they were mere letters of business full of mercantile phrases, technical terms and prices current that would ill suit the case of a Pastoral swain surrounded by his flocks and herds purling streams and murmuring rills etc as you are.--Therefore having as I hope made a sufficient apology for my seeming forgetfulness we will drop this subject--I am really very glad to find Catharine and William have recovered and hope they may enjoy perfect health--
As for the note we'll say nothing about that--I am convinced you will as soon as you can and sooner you know you cannot--only remember that the sooner the more to my advantage--I have been somewhat troubled
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