I am, Madam, With the highest
respect,
"Your very humble servant,
"ROBERT BURNS."
[December 6, 1787.]
The night before Burns was to take tea with his new acquaintance, he
was overturned by a drunken coachman, and received an injury to his
knee which confined him to his rooms for several weeks. Meantime the
correspondence went on with ever-increasing warmth, from "Madam,"
through "My dearest Madam," "my dear kind friend," "my lovely friend,"
to "my dearest angel." They early agreed to call each other Clarinda
and Sylvander, and the Arcadian names are significant of the
sentimental nature of the relation. By the time of their second
meeting--about a month after the first,--they had exchanged intimate
confidences, had discovered endless affinities, and had argued by the
page on religion, Clarinda striving to win Sylvander over to her
orthodox Calvinism. When he was again able to go out, his visits
became for both of them "exquisite" and "rapturous" experiences,
Clarinda struggling to keep on the safe side of discretion by means of
"Reason" and "Religion," Sylvander protesting his complete submission
to her will. The appearance of passion in their letters goes on
increasing, and Clarinda's fits of perturbation in the next morning's
reflections grow more acute. She does not seem to have become the
poet's mistress, and it is impossible to gather what either of them
expected the outcome of their intercourse to be.
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