I must indeed own that I took the liberty to write to your mother,
offering to enclose to her, if she gave me leave, your's of the 24th: by
which I thought she would see what was the state of your mind; what the
nature of your last troubles was from the wicked arrest; what the people
are where you lodge; what proposals were made you from Lord M.'s family;
also your sincere penitence; and how much Miss Howe's writing to them, in
the terms she wrote in, disturbed you--but, as you have taken the matter
into your own hands, and forbid me, in your last, to act in this nice
affair unknown to you, I am glad the letter was not required of me--and
indeed it may be better that the matter lie wholly between you and them;
since my affection for you is thought to proceed from partiality.
They would choose, no doubt, that you should owe to themselves, and not
to my humble mediation, the favour for which you so earnestly sue, and of
which I would not have your despair: for I will venture to assure you,
that your mother is ready to take the first opportunity to show her
maternal tenderness: and this I gather from several hints I am not at
liberty to explain myself upon.
I long to be with you, now I am better, and now my son is in a fair way
of recovery. But is it not hard to have it signified to me that at
present it will not be taken well if I go?--I suppose, while the
reconciliation, which I hope will take place, is negotiating by means of
the correspondence so newly opened between you and your sister. But if
you will have me come, I will rely on my good intentions, and risque
every one's displeasure.
Mr. Brand has business in town; to solicit for a benefice which it is
expected the incumbent will be obliged to quit for a better preferment:
and, when there, he is to inquire privately after your way of life, and
of your health.
He is a very officious young man; and, but that your uncle Harlowe (who
has chosen him for this errand) regards him as an oracle, your mother had
rather any body else had been sent.
He is one of those puzzling, over-doing gentlemen, who think they see
farther into matters than any body else, and are fond of discovered
mysteries where there are none, in order to be thought shrewd men.
I can't say I like him, either in the pulpit or out of it: I, who had a
father one of the soundest divines and finest scholars in the kingdom;
who never made an ostentation of what he knew; but loved and venerated the
gospel he taught, preferring it to all other learning: to be obliged to
hear a young man depart from his text as soon as he has named it, (so
contrary, too, to the example set him by his learned and worthy
principal,* when his health permits him to preach;) and throwing about,
to a christian and country audience, scraps of Latin and Greek from the
Pagan Classics; and not always brought in with great propriety neither,
(if I am to judge by the only way given me to judge of them, by the
English he puts them into;) is an indication of something wrong, either
in his head, or his heart, or both; for, otherwise, his education at the
university must have taught him better. You know, my dear Miss Clary,
the honour I have for the cloth: it is owing to that, that I say what I
do.
* Dr. Lewen.
I know not the day he is to set out; and, as his inquiries are to be
private, be pleased to take no notice of this intelligence. I have no
doubt that your life and conversation are such as may defy the scrutinies
of the most officious inquirer.
I am just now told that you have written a second letter to your sister:
but am afraid they will wait for Mr. Brand's report, before farther
favour will be obtained from them; for they will not yet believe you are
so ill as I fear you are.
But you would soon find that you have an indulgent mother, were she at
liberty to act according to her own inclination. And this gives me great
hopes that all will end well at last: for I verily think you are in the
right way to a reconciliation. God give a blessing to it, and restore
your health, and you to all your friends, prays
Your ever affectionate,
JUDITH NORTON.
Your mother has privately sent me five guineas: she is pleased to say to
help us in the illness we have been afflicted with; but, more
likely, that I might send them to you, as from myself. I hope,
therefore, I may send them up, with ten more I have still left.