The billet-doux would run to this purpose:
"MADAM,
"I have so tender a regard for you and your interests, that I'll knock
any man in the head whom I observe to be of my mind, and like you. Mr.
Truman the other day looked at you in so languishing a manner, that I am
resolved to run him through to-morrow morning: this, I think, he
deserves for his guilt in admiring you; than which I cannot have a
greater reason for murdering him, except it be that you also approve
him. Whoever says he dies for you, I will make his words good, for I
will kill him. I am,
"Madam,
"Your most obedient,
"Most humble Servant."
From my own Apartment, June 14.
I am just come hither at ten at night, and have ever since six been in
the most celebrated, though most nauseous, company in town: the two
leaders of the society were a critic and a wit. These two gentlemen are
great opponents upon all occasions, not discerning that they are the
nearest each other in temper and talents of any two classes of men in
the world; for to profess judgment, and to profess wit, both arise from
the same failure, which is want of judgment.
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