7 June 1796

Mary Hays to William Godwin, Tuesday evening, [7 June 1796].¹

I had sent my letter to the post before I receiv’d your note. I had then to put off an engagement which I had made for Thursday² – This is now adjusted, & I shall be happy to see you, & your charming friend, on the day appointed.

M. H.

Tuesday evening

NB Do not tell M^rs I—y,³ that I suspected she did not like criticism – I love her – “a word in which is comprehended every thing that is kind” – it wou’d grieve me to offend her.

¹ MS MH 0023, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks, Correspondence 462-63; Clemit, Letters 1.170, n. 1. Hays's note above appears on the verso of the previous letter from Godwin.

² Godwin brings Alderson and Wollstonecraft to Hays’s place for tea, along with Stephen Weaver Browne and the Tookes; Elizabeth Hays may have been present as well.

³ Mary Wollstonecraft, the "charming friend" mentioned earlier in the letter, was also known as "Mrs. Imlay" prior to her marriage to Godwin.