I accept with infinite pleasure, my dear friend, the proposal you make, with such kindness, of adopting me as your father. I shall be very happy in the parentage of such a good daughter; and as, by coming to this country, I have lost the sweet company and respectful care of my own affectionate daughter, this loss shall be amended and I shall have the satisfaction to trust that if I spend here the little remains of my days, another affectionate daughter will take care of me during my life and tenderly close my eyelids when I must take my last rest. Yes, my dear child, I love you as a father, with all my heart. It is true that I sometimes suspect that heart of wanting to go further, but I try to conceal it from myself.

I cannot pass within view of that hospitable dwelling, where I have so often been happy in your company and in your friendship, without being keenly aware of all that regret and those pains of absence which you know so well how to express. Your good neighbors are very obliging, and see to it that the Wednesday and Saturday soirées are as pleasant to me as they can possibly be without you. But the sight of those whom I have been accustomed to see with you makes me constantly perceive that you are absent. This elicits sighs from me, and I do not blame them, for if at my age it is not fitting to say that I am in love with a young woman, there is nothing to prevent me from confessing that I admire and love an assemblage of all female virtues and of all admirable talents, and that I love my daughter because she is truly worthy of love, and because she loves me.