26 October 1796

Mary Wollstonecraft to Mary Hays, undated [Wednesday, 26 October 1796].1

My dear friend,

       I have not received a letter from Mrs Cotton,2 yet I must beg you to excuse me, for I have unluckily been invited to dine out on thursday where business calls me – If any day next week will be ^the^ same to you, ^you^ would much oblige me by permitting me to be free, or I shall not be able to wait on you till late in the evening.

                                     yours affectionately

                                                Mary

Wednesday Morning –

Address: Miss Hays

1 MS MW 0045, Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL; Brooks, Correspondence 308; Todd, Collected Letters 373.

2 Wollstonecraft's Berkshire friend with whom she spent most of March 1796 recovering from her affair with Gilbert Imlay; she would continue to see Mrs. Cotton into 1797 as well.