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you may reply, that it is hard, you should be deprived of the pleasure you expect in visiting southern Friends, by My Singularities – so it is, my dear Eliza, & I am so little disposed to impose any hardship on you, that if you yourself, on deliberate Reflection, think I ought rather to banish myself from hence, rather than prevent your Visit to a County, which you used to detest, I will (however inconvenient it may be to me) fly to France, or seek some remote Retirement before your arrival. assuredly I will not be at Eartham (tho having a number of Books already sent to me here for the work I have mentioned, it would be most singularly inconvenient to me to desert my own study this Summer) yet I repeat, I will not be at Eartham when you are in Sussex –

Heaven does not seem to have allotted Felicity in this world to any one; & it has rendered it particularly impossible for us to form the Happiness of each other by living together; but it is still in our Power, my dear Eliza, to consult our mutual Tranquillity at a distance, by a kind & meritorious attention to the Wishes of each other. If you greatly wish to visit the persons of this County, when you mention (tho' between ourselves they are so very weak in Understanding, that you would be sick to death of their Society) yet if such is your wish, I will, as I have said, at any Time contrive to leave this part of the World, rather than prevent you accepting offers of civility, that you desire to cultivate. – In return, I may reasonably expect, that you will have the Goodness to consult my convenience & comfort a little, as to the Time of your unexpected visit to a county, that you have so often declared you hoped never to see again – your passing part of the summer after this with the old Countess, if you continue to wish it, we can easily contrive in such a manner, as you shall desire; & I shall then have time to chuse at Leisure the place of my own Residence, during the months, you