I would have you appear, Sir, as you are! I am resolved that I will
appear to my uncle's friend, and to my uncle, as I am.
For one week, my dearest life! cannot you for one week--only till the
settlements--
Not for one hour, with my own consent. You don't know, Sir, how much I
have been afflicted, that I have appeared to the people below what I am
not. But my uncle, Sir, shall never have it to upbraid me, nor will I to
upbraid myself, that I have wilfully passed upon him in false lights.
What, my dear, would you have me say to the Captain to-morrow morning? I
have given him room to think--
Then put him right, Mr. Lovelace. Tell the truth. Tell him what you
please of the favour of your relations to me: tell him what you will
about the settlements: and if, when drawn, you will submit them to his
perusal and approbation, it will show him how much you are in earnest.
My dearest life!--Do you think that he would disapprove of the terms I
have offered?
No.
Then may I be accursed, if I willingly submit to be trampled under foot
by my enemies!
And may I, Mr. Lovelace, never be happy in this life, if I submit to
the passing upon my uncle Harlowe a wilful and premeditated falshood for
truth! I have too long laboured under the affliction which the rejection
of all my friends has given me, to purchase my reconciliation with them
now at so dear a price as this of my veracity.