To Captain Fitzgerald.
Bellfield, Nov. 17, Morning.
I have had a letter from Colonel Willmott myself to-day; he is still
quite unacquainted with the state of our domestic affairs; supposes me
a batchelor, and talks of my being his son-in-law as a certainty, not
attending to the probability of my having other engagements.
His history, which he tells me in this letter, is a very romantic
one. He was a younger brother, and provided for accordingly: he loved,
when about twenty, a lady who was as little a favorite of fortune as
himself: their families, who on both sides had other views, joined
their interest to get him sent to the East Indies; and the young lady
was removed to the house of a friend in London, where she was to
continue till he had left England.
Before he went, however, they contrived to meet, and were privately
married; the marriage was known only to her brother, who was
Willmott's friend.
He left her in the care of her brother, who, under pretence of
diverting her melancholy, and endeavoring to cure her passion, obtained
leave of his father to take her with him to France.
She was there delivered of this child, and expired a few days after.
Her brother, without letting her family know the secret, educated
the infant, as the daughter of a younger brother who had been just
before killed in a duel in France; her parents, who died in a few
years, were, almost in their last moments, informed of these
circumstances, and made a small provision for the child.
In the mean time, Colonel Willmott, after experiencing a great
variety of misfortunes for many years, during which he maintained a
constant correspondence with his brother-in-law, and with no other
person in Europe, by a train of lucky accidents, acquired very rapidly
a considerable fortune, with which he resolved to return to England,
and marry his daughter to me, as the only method to discharge fully
his obligations to my grandfather, who alone, of all his family, had
given him the least assistance when he left England. He wrote to his
daughter, letting her know his design, and directing her to meet him in
London; but she is not yet arrived.
Six in the evening.
My mother and Emily went to Temple's to dinner; they are to dress
there, and I am to be surprized.
Seven.
Colonel Willmott is come: he is an extreme handsome man; tall,
well-made, with an air of dignity which one seldom sees; he is very
brown, and, what will please Bell, has an aquiline nose: he looks about
fifty, but is not so much; change of climate has almost always the
disagreable effect of adding some years to the look.
He is dressing, to accompany me to the masquerade; I must attend
him: I have only time to say,
I am yours,
Ed. Rivers.