Wicked story-teller!
But, added he, I will tell you, Madam, how it shall be managed--If
you don't choose to go to London, it is, nevertheless, best that your
relations should think you there; for then they will absolutely despair
of finding you. If you write, be pleased to direct, to be left for you,
at Mr. Osgood's, near Soho-square. Mr. Osgood is a man of reputation:
and this will effectually amuse them.
Amuse them, my dear!--Amuse whom?--My father!--my uncles!--But it must
be so!----All his expedients ready, you see!
I had no objection to this: and I have written accordingly. But what
answer I shall have, or whether any, that is what gives me no small
anxiety.
This, however, is one consolation, that if I have an answer, and
although my brother should be the writer, it cannot be more severe than
the treatment I have of late received from him and my sister.
Mr. Lovelace staid out about an hour and half; and then came in;
impatiently sending up to me no less than four times, to desire
admittance. But I sent him word as often, that I was busy; and at last,
that I should be so, till dinner was ready. He then hastened that, as I
heard him now-and-then, with a hearty curse upon the cook and waiters.
This is another of his perfections. I ventured afterwards to check him
for his free words, as we sat at dinner.
Having heard him swear at his servant, when below, whom, nevertheless,
he owns to be a good one; it is a sad life, said I, these innkeepers
live, Mr. Lovelace.
No; pretty well, I believe--but why, Madam, think you, that fellows, who
eat and drink at other men's cost, or they are sorry innkeepers, should
be entitled to pity?
Because of the soldiers they are obliged to quarter; who are generally,
I believe, wretched profligates. Bless me! said I, how I heard one of
them swear and curse, just now, at a modest, meek man, as I judge by his
low voice, and gentle answers!--Well do they make it a proverb--Like a
trooper!
He bit his lip; arose; turned upon his heel; stept to the glass; and
looking confidently abashed, if I may say so, Ay, Madam, said he,
these troopers are sad swearing fellows. I think their officers should
chastise them for it.
I am sure they deserve chastisement, replied I: for swearing is a most
unmanly vice, and cursing as poor and low a one; since they proclaim the
profligate's want of power, and his wickedness at the same time; for,
could such a one punish as he speaks, he would be a fiend!
Charmingly observed, by my soul, Madam!--The next trooper I hear swear
and curse, I'll tell him what an unmanly, and what a poor wretch he is.
Mrs. Greme came to pay her duty to me, as Mr. Lovelace called it; and
was very urgent with me to go to her lord's house; letting me know what
handsome things she had heard of her lord, and his two nieces, and all
the family, say of me; and what wishes for several months past they had
put up for the honour she now hoped would soon be done them all.
This gave me some satisfaction, as it confirmed from the mouth of a very
good sort of woman all that Mr. Lovelace had told me.
Upon inquiry about a private lodging, she recommended me to a
sister-in-law of hers, eight miles from thence--where I now am. And what
pleased me the better, was, that Mr. Lovelace (of whom I could see she
was infinitely observant) obliged her, of his own motion, to accompany
me in the chaise; himself riding on horseback, with his two servants,
and one of Lord M.'s. And here we arrived about four o'clock.
But, as I told you in my former, the lodgings are inconvenient. Mr.
Lovelace indeed found great fault with them: and told Mrs. Greme (who
had said, that they were not worthy of us) that they came not up even to
her own account of them. As the house was a mile from a town, it was not
proper for him, he said, to be so far distant from me, lest any thing
should happen: and yet the apartments were not separate and distinct
enough for me to like them, he was sure.
This must be agreeable enough for him, you will believe.
Mrs. Greme and I had a good deal of talk in the chaise about him: she
was very easy and free in her answers to all I asked; and has, I find, a
very serious turn.
I led her on to say to the following effect; some part of it not unlike
what Lord M.'s dismissed bailiff had said before; by which I find that
all the servants have a like opinion of him.
'That Mr. Lovelace was a generous man: that it was hard to say, whether
the servants of her lord's family loved or feared him most: that her
lord had a very great affection for him: that his two noble aunts were
not less fond of him: that his cousins Montague were as good natured
young ladies as ever lived: that Lord M. and Lady Sarah, and Lady Betty
had proposed several ladies to him, before he made his addresses to me:
and even since; despairing to move me and my friends in his favour.--But
that he had no thoughts of marrying at all, she had heard him say, if it
were not to me: that as well her lord as the two ladies his sisters were
a good deal concerned at the ill-usage he received from my family: but
admired my character, and wished to have him married to me (although I
were not to have a shilling) in preference to any other person, from the
opinion they had of the influence I should have over him. That, to be
sure, Mr. Lovelace was a wild gentleman: but wildness was a distemper
which would cure itself. That her lord delighted in his company,
whenever he could get it: but that they often fell out; and his lordship
was always forced to submit--indeed, was half afraid of him, she
believed; for Mr. Lovelace would do as he pleased. She mingled a
thousand pities often, that he acted not up to the talents lent him--yet
would have it, that he had fine qualities to found a reformation upon:
and, when the happy day came, would make amends for all: and of this all
his friends were so assured, that they wished for nothing so earnestly,
as for his marriage.'
This, indifferent as it is, is better than my brother says of him.
The people of the house here are very honest-looking industrious folks:
Mrs. Sorlings is the gentlewoman's name. The farm seems well stocked,
and thriving. She is a widow; has two sons, men grown, who vie with each
other which shall take most pains in promoting the common good; and they
are both of them, I already see, more respectful to two modest young
women their sisters, than my brother was to his sister.