If you (Panchaud) can procure me the honour of a few names of
men of science or fashion, I shall thank you: they will appear in good
company, as all the nobility here have honoured me with their names."
As was usual with him, however, he postponed commencing it until he
should have returned to Coxwold; and, as was equally usual with
him, he found it difficult to tear himself away from the delights
of London. Moreover, there was in the present instance a special
difficulty, arising out of an affair upon which, as it has relations
with the history of Sterne's literary work, it would be impossible,
even in the most strictly critical and least general of biographies,
to observe complete silence. I refer, of course, to the famous and
furious flirtation with Mrs. Draper--the Eliza of the Yorick and Eliza
Letters. Of the affair itself but little need be said. I have already
stated my own views on the general subject of Sterne's love affairs;
and I feel no inducement to discuss the question of their innocence
or otherwise in relation to this particular amourette. I will only
say that were it technically as innocent as you please, the mean
which must be found between Thackeray's somewhat too harsh and Mr.
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