MR. LOVELACE
[IN CONTINUATION.]
It was now high time to acquaint my spouse, that Captain Tomlinson was
come. And the rather, as the maid told us, that the lady had asked her
if such a gentleman [describing him] was not in the parlour?
Mrs. Moore went up, and requested, in my name, that she would give us
audience.
But she returned, reporting my beloved's desire, that Captain Tomlinson
would excuse her for the present. She was very ill. Her spirits were
too weak to enter into conversation with him; and she must lie down.
I was vexed, and at first extremely disconcerted. The Captain was vexed
too. And my concern, thou mayest believe, was the greater on his
account.
She had been very much fatigued, I own. Her fits in the morning must
have disordered her: and she had carried her resentment so high, that it
was the less wonder she should find herself low, when her raised spirits
had subsided. Very low, I may say; if sinkings are proportioned to
risings; for she had been lifted up above the standard of a common
mortal.
The Captain, however, sent up his own name, that if he could be admitted
to drink one dish of tea with her, he should take it for a favour: and
would go to town, and dispatch some necessary business, in order, if
possible, to leave his morning free to attend her.
But she pleaded a violent head-ache; and Mrs. Moore confirmed the plea to
be just.
I would have had the Captain lodge there that night, as well in
compliment to him, as introductory to my intention of entering myself
upon my new-taken apartment: but his hours were of too much importance to
him to stay the evening.
It was indeed very inconvenient for him, he said, to return in the
morning; but he is willing to do all in his power to heal this breach,
and that as well for the sakes of me and my lady, as for that of his dear
friend Mr. John Harlowe; who must not know how far this misunderstanding
had gone. He would therefore only drink one dish of tea with the ladies
and me.
And accordingly, after he had done so, and I had had a little private
conversation with him, he hurried away.
His fellow had given him, in the interim, a high character to Mrs.
Moore's servants: and this reported by the widow Bevis (who being no
proud woman, is hail fellow well met, as the saying is, with all her
aunt's servants) he was a fine gentleman, a discreet gentleman, a man of
sense and breeding, with them all: and it was pity, that, with such great
business upon his hands, he should be obliged to come again.
My life for your's, audibly whispered the widow Bevis, there is humour as
well as head-ache in somebody's declining to see this worthy gentleman.--
Ah, Lord! how happy might some people be if they would!
No perfect happiness in this world, said I, very gravely, and with a
sigh; for the widow must know that I heard her. If we have not real
unhappiness, we can make it, even from the overflowings of our good
fortune.
Very true, and very true, the two widows. A charming observation! Mrs.
Bevis. Miss Rawlins smiled her assent to it; and I thought she called me
in her heart charming man! for she professes to be a great admirer of
moral observations.
I had hardly taken leave of the Captain, and sat down again with the
women, when Will. came; and calling me out, 'Sir, Sir,' said he, grinning
with a familiarity in his looks as if what he had to say entitled him to
take liberties; 'I have got the fellow down!--I have got old Grimes--hah,
hah, hah, hah!--He is at the Lower Flask--almost in the condition of
David's sow, and please your honour--[the dog himself not much better]
here is his letter--from--from Miss Howe--ha, ha, ha, ha,' laughed the
varlet; holding it fast, as if to make conditions with me, and to excite
my praises, as well as my impatience.
I could have knocked him down; but he would have his say out--'old Grimes
knows not that I have the letter--I must get back to him before he misses
it--I only make a pretence to go out for a few minutes--but--but'--and
then the dog laughed again--'he must stay--old Grimes must stay--till I
go back to pay the reckoning.'
D--n the prater; grinning rascal! The letter! The letter!
He gathered in his wide mothe, as he calls it, and gave me the letter;
but with a strut, rather than a bow; and then sidled off like one of
widow Sorlings's dunghill cocks, exulting after a great feat performed.
And all the time that I was holding up the billet to the light, to try to
get at its contents without breaking the seal, [for, dispatched in a
hurry, it had no cover,] there stood he, laughing, shrugging, playing off
his legs; now stroking his shining chin, now turning his hat upon his
thumb! then leering in my face, flourishing with his head--O Christ!
now-and-then cried the rascal--
What joy has this dog in mischief!--More than I can have in the
completion of my most favourite purposes!--These fellows are ever happier
than their masters.
I was once thinking to rumple up this billet till I had broken the seal.
Young families [Miss Howe's is not an ancient one] love ostentatious
sealings: and it might have been supposed to have been squeezed in pieces
in old Grimes's breeches-pocket. But I was glad to be saved the guilt as
well as suspicion of having a hand in so dirty a trick; for thus much of
the contents (enough for my purpose) I was enabled to scratch out in
character without it; the folds depriving me only of a few connecting
words, which I have supplied between hooks.
My Miss Harlowe, thou knowest, had before changed her name to Miss
Laetitia Beaumont. Another alias now, Jack, to it; for this billet was
directed to her by the name of Mrs. Harriot Lucas. I have learned her to
be half a rogue, thou seest.
'I congratulate you, my dear, with all my heart and soul, upon [your
escape] from the villain. [I long] for the particulars of all. [My
mother] is out; but, expecting her return every minute, I dispatched
[your] messenger instantly. [I will endeavour to come at] Mrs. Townsend
without loss of time; and will write at large in a day or two, if in that
time I can see her. [Mean time I] am excessively uneasy for a letter I
sent you yesterday by Collins, [who must have left it at] Wilson's after
you got away. [It is of very] great importance. [I hope the] villain
has it not. I would not for the world [that he should.] Immediately
send for it, if, by doing so, the place you are at [will not be]
discovered. If he has it, let me know it by some way [out of] hand. If
not, you need not send.
'Ever, ever your's,
'A.H.
'June 9.'
***
O Jack! what heart's-ease does this interception give me!--I sent the
rascal back with the letter to old Grimes, and charged him to drink no
deeper. He owned, that he was half-seas over, as he phrased it.