You remember I was ordered peremptorily to be at Gravesend on Saturday morning by ten or eleven o’clock at the latest, though it was impossible for me to procure the necessary order to embark, 当然，我不可能在十二点以前离开伦敦. To reconcile the two circumstances was not within my competency, and indeed I think it might be given as no easy task to an abler man. I had besides left so many things undone by the common spirit of procrastination 那 upon the short notice I received, it would have required not simply the alertness but even the magical powers of an Harlequin to have expedited one quarter part of them so as to be perfectly punctual to the moment of my summons.我有一个很好的理由相信我的荷兰语 队长 不愿意离开，把我留在身后吗, I set myself about performing my indispensables in the morning so as to step into a Chaise the instant 那 my order from the Duke of Portland’s office should be delivered me.1 Among my indispensables I will own to you, was about an hour devoted to a last sitting to Mr: 船体. 我认为他长得很像 那 original, and you I think will like it better than the large portrait because it is 不怎么受宠若惊. 一做完就走, 他会把它寄给你爸爸, 谁会毫无疑问地知道它是注定给你的. Accept it as a token of an affection which will cease only with the last pulse of the heart of him whose image it is, 愿它常与你相遇, 带着一半此刻的喜悦 he derives from a look at the precious corresponding pledge of your regard, 现在摆在他面前的桌子上.2

在第二次拜访公爵办公室后, 准许上船的命令已经准备好了, 十分钟后, 我上了邮车, half anxious to arrive at Gravesend in time for my opportunity, 半烦躁不安, at the consciousness of an involuntary wish 那 I might be too late. 四点钟一到格雷夫森德，我就找到了那艘船, 等了我三四个小时后，船才开了, 但是她并没有进步多少, 我立刻坐上了船, 在离她七英里的地方追上了她.— Our passage was boisterous but not unpleasant and on Tuesday at a similar hour to 那 on which I had embarked, 我在鹿特丹降落.

在这个国家，你知道, one of the common modes of travelling is in boats drawn by horses upon the canals. These boats follow one another regularly every hour or two from each town to the next. 我一到就感到不耐烦, 尽快去见我弟弟, and therefore immediately took a place in the boat 那 was coming from Rotterdam.— I had been seated in it but a few minutes, when I was joined by Mr: 伯恩, 他刚从巴黎回来, 当我从伦敦回来的时候, 他很惊讶在那里见到我, 这种情况对我来说同样出乎意料.

就在当天晚上，我们到达了这个地方, and one of my first enquiries was whether there was any vessel going soon to England. 我发现有一只只等着一阵风, and I take advantage of the opportunity to give you this history of my voyage.— You will perhaps think I might have spared myself the trouble, but if I can draw from my own feelings any inference of yours it will not be altogether devoid of interest. 我确实渴望收到你的来信, and I am sure a detail of the minutest and most trivial circumstances in which you have any concern would give me pleasure. Six days have elapsed since I last enjoyed the happiness of seeing you, 每时每刻都有许多日子.— My Philosophy—I have called 那 very often to my aid, but it sometimes refuses to come at my call. The tediousness of absence in spite of every consolation will sometimes be irksome, 但是不依赖于那种感觉, there is something pleasing and grateful in the remembrance of a distant friend.— On my return here I find myself in the midst of business enough, but it will take me some time before I shall be able to bend myself properly to it. My imagination cannot help flying from the flat realities around me to the scenes which have been recently familiar to me, 当它们被享用时，它们是多么珍贵, 现在它们已经过去了，仍然更有价值吗. 我看见你坐在索菲娅上，前面有张桌子, 在范代克工作, 和卡洛琳 at the other end with her silken network pinn’d before her, while Nancy calls the very soul of harmony from the forte-piano. 我挡在你们中间, I run a file of spangles upon a needle; I urge you, 虽然没有成功地制造出人们期待已久的竖琴, or to give the graces of your voice to the shepherds charming “pipe upon the mountain.”3 我们从那里走到对面的房间, 一个姐姐给字典添加的幽默内容在哪里, 还有另一个人未填满的诅咒的轮廓, 快乐和魅力，虽然他们不能激励 306 重力的呆板沉闷, at your Mamma’s left hand; and at length when the hour of midnight sounded from the unrelenting monitor of the moments past, 尽管不情愿，我还是要离开, 然后是幻觉消失的时刻, and leave me to 那 solitude which the pencil of Fancy herself can no longer colour.

自从我回来, I find myself confirmed in the determination to make the remainder of my stay here as short as possible, for I am more firmly convinced 那 my residence here in my present situation will become insupportable, 只有这种变化才能使我适应它, is still impracticable consistent with the prudential principles which however unpalatable, 我不能放弃. I shall take the earliest opportunity of writing to my friends in America, and if I can procure any prospect 那 will enable me to indulge the wishes of my heart, I shall cheerfully resign a career of public life which can offer nothing satisfactory to Ambition, 它禁止拥有那种私人的幸福, 这是我希望的第一个目标，也只有你能答应.

请记住我对你妈妈的尊敬和感激, 谨向你所有可爱的姐妹致以亲切的问候. Tell Nancy 那 the Rosary and the new Sonatas yet vibrate upon the ears of Mr: 测试, 和卡洛琳, 那 he would with rapture hear once more her deep ton’d execrations for the sake of making up all again by a shake of her hand. 对自己, 路易莎, say in his behalf every thing 那 can give you the most pleasing and unmingled gratification, and be assured 那 however warm and eloquent the language may be it will fall far, far short of the feelings which fill the breast of your ever faithful and affectionate friend