Yes, my dear, I have submitted to inoculation, and have, not withstanding, suffered severely — No less than one hundred pustules in my face, so that you will judge what a fright I am — But, no matter, I am now qualified to render any service in my power, to those friends who may in future suffer in this way.
My Physician assures me that I should not run the least risk, in returning home this day, I have taken every precaution that the most scrupulous timidity could suggest — yet the fear of alarming my connexions, will keep me here another week, or ten days when I may surely return —
Say, my Love, may I not safely meet you at that period? I believe I shall venture — I am impatient to see you once more — it seems a little age since I left Gloucester, and although I have been cruelly treated in that place, yet recollection is constantly reminding me that in Gloucester, my dearest connexions still inhale the vital air —
Fancy often presents you in my sleeping moments, and I dream myself once more among you — yet this fleeting vision is too soon dissolved, and waking I exclaim — Beloved and most precious Circle, do you indeed exist, or are you only ideas floating, athwart the disk of imagination, which, however I may heretofore have realized, I shall not again be permitted to embody? —
See my sweet Girl, how you have erred, I have not figured splendidly in the Beau monde, but I have been constantly confined by illness, although had your conjectures been correct, you have yet to learn the heart of your sister, if you suppose she would prefer any enjoyment, which the round of dissipation can bestow, to the pleasures which result from friendship.
Often, and often, since I left home, hath my bosom sighed for the kind soothings of an amiable sister, for the dear presence of an affectionate Mother — Indeed Home hath ever been to me a world possessing most potent charms, and, I dare believe, its fascination ... to the whole of my existence.
To Mr Stevens my plan, and its nature, was fully known — It was known and sanctioned — my letters to him are sufficiently explanatory — Remember me in the most affectionate terms to your husband and to my charming Boy** [—]
Adieu — May Peace, uninterrupted Peace be with you
*Judith Sargent Stevens to Esther Sargent Ellery, her sister, four years younger; to date, no portrait of Esther has been found
** "my charming boy" is Esther's son, John Stevens Ellery