13 or 20 January 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft to Mary Robinson, undated [Friday, 13 or 20 January 1797].1

Dear Madam,

       I believe it is scarcely necessary to inform you that Miss Hays will accept of your invitation, and accompany me on Sunday next to dinner at your house.

      As you were so obliging as to offer to send the carriage for the little Fannikin, I promised to call for her. In the evening, if one of your servants will put Marguerite in her way, she and Fanny may return at an early hour.2 You will smile at having so much of the womanish mother in me; but there is a little philosophy in it, entre nous; for I like to rouse her infant faculties by strong impressions.

      I write in haste, with kind remembrance to your Mary3 I am yours Sincerely

                        Mary Imlay

Friday evening, or rather night –

1 MS MW 0027, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks Correspondence 305-06; Todd, Collected Letters 387 (dated c. late 1796). The first reference in Godwin’s diary that places Robinson with Hays, Wollstonecraft, and Godwin occurs on Sunday, 22 January 1797:  “tea mrs Robinson's, w. mes Hanway, Hays & Wt, Tn, Taylor & Columbine.” Given the “Sunday next” reference in this letter, the date would be either Friday, 13 January or 20 January 1797.

2 house] MS

3 Mary Robinson, daughter of the poet Mary Robinson.