"Even from my infancy," he says (in 1714) "I have been in love with one or other of you week by week, and my journey to Bath fell out in the 376th week of the reign of my sovereign lady Sylvia.

At the present writing hereof, it is the 389th week of the reign of your most serene majesty, in whose service I was listed some weeks before I beheld your sister." He had suggested to Lady Mary that the concluding lines of Eloisa contained a delicate compliment to her; and he characteristically made a similar insinuation to Martha Blount about the same passage.

Pope was decidedly an economist even of his compliments.

Some later letters are in less artificial language, and there is a really touching and natural letter to Teresa in regard to an illness of her sister's.

After a time, we find that some difficulty has arisen.