Chapter XLVIII: Letter 202: To the Countess of

"Albany, October 5. 1814.

"Dear Lady * *,

"Your recollection and invitation do me great honour; but I am
going to be 'married, and can't come.' My intended is two hundred
miles off, and the moment my business here is arranged, I must set
out in a great hurry to be happy. Miss Milbanke is the good-natured
person who has undertaken me, and, of course, I am very much in
love, and as silly as all single gentlemen must be in that
sentimental situation. I have been accepted these three weeks; but
when the event will take place, I don't exactly know. It depends
partly upon lawyers, who are never in a hurry. One can be sure of
nothing; but, at present, there appears no other interruption to
this intention, which seems as mutual as possible, and now no
secret, though I did not tell first,--and all our relatives are
congratulating away to right and left in the most fatiguing manner.

"You perhaps know the lady. She is niece to Lady Melbourne, and
cousin to Lady Cowper and others of your acquaintance, and has no
fault, except being a great deal too good for me, and that _I_
must pardon, if nobody else should. It might have been _two_ years
ago, and, if it had, would have saved me a world of trouble. She
has employed the interval in refusing about half a dozen of my
particular friends, (as she did me once, by the way,) and has taken
me at last, for which I am very much obliged to her. I wish it was
well over, for I do hate bustle, and there is no marrying without
some;--and then, I must not marry in a black coat, they tell me,
and I can't bear a blue one.

"Pray forgive me for scribbling all this nonsense. You know I must
be serious all the rest of my life, and this is a parting piece of
buffoonery, which I write with tears in my eyes, expecting to be
agitated. Believe me most seriously and sincerely your obliged
servant, BYRON.

"P.S. My best rems. to Lord * * on his return."

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