ate the wretch?--But words are weak--What
can I say, that will suitably express my abhorrence
of such a villain as he must have been, when he
meditated to carry a Clarissa to such a place!

'Miss Lardner kept this to herself some days,
not knowing what to do; for she loves you, and
admires you of all women. At last she revealed it,
but in confidence, to Miss Biddulph, by letter.
Miss Biddulph, in like confidence, being afraid it
would distract me, were I to know it, communi-
cated it to Miss Lloyd; and so, like a whispered
scandal, it passed through several canals, and then
it came to me; which was not till last Monday.'

I thought I should have fainted upon the surpris-
ing communication. But rage taking place, it blew
away the sudden illness. I besought Miss Lloyd
to re-enjoin secrecy to every one. I told her that
>>> I would not for the world that my mother, or any
of your family, should know it. And I instantly
caused a trusty friend to make what inquiries he
could about Tomlinson.

>>> I had thoughts to have done it before I had this
intelligence: but not imagining it to be needful, and
little thinking that you could be in such a house, and
as you were pleased with your changed prospects, I
>>> forbore. And the rather forbore, as the matter is
so laid, that Mrs. Hodges is supposed to know
nothing of the projected treaty of accommodation;
but, on the contrary, that it was designed to be a
secret to her, and to every body but immediate
parties; and it was Mrs. Hodges that I had pro-
posed to sound by a second hand.

>>> Now, my dear, it is certain, without applying to
that too-much-favoured housekeeper, that there is
not such a man within ten miles of your uncle.--
Very true!--One Tomkins there is, about four miles
off; but he is a day-labourer: and one Thompson,
about five miles distant the other way; but he is a
parish schoolmaster, poor, and about seventy.

>>> A man, thought but of L.800 a year, cannot come
from one country to settle in another, but every
body in both must know it, and talk of it.

>>> Mrs. Hodges may yet be sounded at a distance,
if you will. Your uncle is an old man. Old men
imagine themselves under obligation to their para-
>>> mours, if younger than them