4. FROM THE TWENTY-FIRST OF JUNE TO THE
END OF JULYCytherea had in the meantime received the following letter from
her brother. It was the first definite notification of the
enlargement of that cloud no bigger than a man's hand which had for
nearly a twelvemonth hung before them in the distance, and which
was soon to give a colour to their whole sky from horizon to
horizon.
'BUDMOUTH REGIS,
Saturday.
'DARLING SIS,—I have delayed telling you for a long time of a
little matter which, though not one to be seriously alarmed about,
is sufficiently vexing, and it would be unfair in me to keep it
from you any longer. It is that for some time past I have again
been distressed by that lameness which I first distinctly felt when
we went to Lulstead Cove, and again when I left Knapwater
