, his dear friend made a proposal:--It was
this--That we should marry out of hand, but as privately as possible, as
indeed he found we intended, (for he could have no objection to the
draughts)--but yet, he expected to have present one trusty friend of his
own, for his better satisfaction'--

Here I stopt, with a design to be angry--but she desiring me to read on,
I obeyed.

'--But that it should pass to every one living, except to that trusty
person, to himself, and to the Captain, that we were married from the
time that we had lived together in one house; and that this time should
be made to agree with that of Mr. Hickman's application to him from Miss
Howe.'

This, my dearest life, said I, is a very considerate proposal. We have
nothing to do but to caution the people below properly on this head. I
did not think your uncle Harlowe capable of hitting upon such a charming
expedient as this. But you see how much his heart is in the
reconciliation.

This was the return I met with--You have always, as a mark of your
politeness, let me know how meanly you think of every one in my family.

Yet thou wilt think, Belford, that I could forgive her for the reproach.

'The Captain does not know, says he, how this proposal will be relished
by us. But for his part, he thinks it an expedient that will obviate
many difficulties, and may possibly put an end to Mr. James Harlowe's
further designs: and on this account he has, by the uncle's advice,
already declared to two several persons, by whose means it may come to
that young gentleman's, that he [Captain Tomlinson] has very great reason
to believe that we were married soon after Mr. Hickman's application was
rejected.

'And this, Mr. Lovelace, (says the Captain,) will enable you to pay a
compliment to the family, that will not be unsuitable to the generosity
of some of the declarations you were pleased to make to the lady before
me, (and which Mr. John Harlowe may make some advantage of in favour of a
reconciliation,) in that you were entitled to make the demand.' An
excellent contriver, surely, she must think this worthy Mr. Tomlinson to
be!

But the Captain adds, 'that if either the lady or I disapprove of his
report of our marriage, he will retract it. Nevertheless, he must tell
me, that Mr. John Harlowe is very much set upon this way of proceeding;
as the only one, in his opinion, capable of being improved into a general
reconciliation. But if we do acquiesce in