Note 4 — LETTER IV.

I shall take the liberty to use the word "mistress," throughout these letters, in the sense appropriated to it by Addison, Johnson, and other English classic authors. Sweetheart is too old-fashioned. "Lady-love" suits the style of my fashionable nieces, better than mine. Mistress is an authorized Saxon word, of well-defined meaning, though, like some others, perverted to a bad use, at times.