11 August [1792]

Mary Wollstonecraft, Store Street, Bedford Square, to Mary Hays, Gainsford Street, 11 August [1792].1

Madam,

       Intending to call upon you I put off answering your letter from time to time till, as is usually the case, it became a task and I could not recollect what I thought of saying when I first read it. I will then simply acknowledge the receipt of your testimony of esteem merely to have an opportunity of telling you that when I return to Town I shall be glad to see you. I should, indeed, have invited you, if convenient, to have visited me before my departure; but some family cares, among the rest the settling a brother in life,2 drove secondary objects out of my mind.

                         I am Madam Yours &c

                                     [Mary Wollstonecraft]

Augt 11th, [1792]

Store Street.

Bedford Square.

Address: Miss Hays | Gainsford Street | Southwark

Postmark: not readable

1 MS MW 0037, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks, Correspondence 301-02; Todd, Collected Letters 202.

2 Charles Wollstonecraft, her younger brother.