I
hate being _larmoyant_, and making a serious face among those who are
cheerful.
It is my wish that our acquaintance, or, if you please to accept it,
friendship, may be permanent. I have been lucky enough to preserve some
friends from a very early period, and I hope, as I do not (at least now)
select them lightly, I shall not lose them capriciously. I have a
thorough esteem for that independence of spirit [1] which you have
maintained with sterling talent, and at the expense of some suffering.
You have not, I trust, abandoned the poem you were composing, when Moore
and I partook of your hospitality in the summer. I hope a time will come
when he and I may be able to repay you in kind for the _latter_--for the
rhyme, at least in _quantity_, you are in arrear to both.
Believe me, very truly and affectionately yours,
Byron.
[Footnote 1: The following is Leigh Hunt's answer:
"My dear Lord,--I need not tell you how much your second letter has
gratified me, for I am apt to speak as sincerely as I think (you must
suffer me to talk in this way after what you have been kind enough to
say of my independence), and it always rejoices me to find that those
whom I wish to regard will take me at my word. But I shall grow
egotistical upon the strength of your Lordship's good opinion. I shall
be heartily glad to see you on Saturday morning, and perhaps shall
prevail upon you to take a luncheon with us at our dinner-time(3). The
nature of your letter would have brought upon you a long answer,
filled perhaps with an enthusiasm that might have made you smile; but
I am keeping your servant in the cold, and so, among other good
offices, you see what he has done for you.
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