Just returned from Doctors Commons. I have been endeavouring to get a
license. Very true, Jack. I have the mortification to find a
difficulty, as the lady is of rank and fortune, and as there is no
consent of father or next friend, in obtaining this all-fettering
instrument.
I made report of this difficulty. 'It is very right,' she says, 'that
such difficulties should be made.'--But not to a man of my known fortune,
surely, Jack, though the woman were the daughter of a duke.
I asked, if she approved of the settlements? She said, she had compared
them with my mother's, and had no objection to them. She had written to
Miss Howe upon the subject, she owned; and to inform her of our present
situation.*
* As this letter of the Lady to Miss Howe contains no new matter, but
what may be collected from one of those of Mr. Lovelace, it is omitted.
***
Just now, in high good humour, my beloved returned me the draughts of the
settlements: a copy of which I have sent to Captain Tomlinson. She
complimented me, 'that she never had any doubt of my honour in cases of
this nature.'
In matters between man and man nobody ever had, thou knowest.