I should be glad to know
your opinion of it. You will readily observe the advantage I have over
-----. He is of an unsuspicious make, and this gives me an opportunity
(if I had any inclination) to insert things which might draw from her
secrets she would choose I should be ignorant of. But I would suffer
crucifixion rather than be guilty of such an unparalleled meanness. On
the contrary, I have carefully avoided saying any thing which might
have the least tendency to make her write what she would be unwilling
I should see.
Adieu.
A. BURR.
On the 12th of March, 1775, Burr writes Ogden:--
I have received your and Aaron's [3] letters. I was a little
disappointed that you did not send an acrostic; but I still entertain
some secret hope that the muse (who, you say, has taken her flight)
will shortly return, and, by a new and stricter intimacy, more than
repay the pains of this momentary absence. Your happiness, Matt., is
really almost the only present thing I can contemplate with any
satisfaction; though I, like other fools, view futurity with
partiality enough to make it very desirable; but I must first throw
reason aside, and leave fancy uncontrolled. In some of these happy
freaks I have endeavoured to take as agreeable a sleigh-ride as you
had to Goshen; but I find it impracticable, unless you will make one
of the party; for my imagination, when most romantic, is not lively or
delusive enough to paint an object that can, in my eyes, atone for
your absence.
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