ad,

Your truly affectionate uncle,
M.

***

This letter clench'd the nail. Not but that, Miss Rawlins said, she saw
I had been a wild gentleman; and, truly she thought so the moment she
beheld me.

They began to intercede for my spouse, (so nicely had I turned the
tables;) and that I would not go abroad and disappoint a reconciliation
so much wished for on one side, and such desirable prospects on the other
in my own family.

Who knows, thought I to myself, but more may come of this plot, than I
had even promised myself? What a happy man shall I be, if these women
can be brought to join to carry my marriage into consummation!

Ladies, you are exceedingly good to us both. I should have some hopes,
if my unhappily nice spouse could be brought to dispense with the
unnatural oath she has laid me under. You see what my case is. Do you
think I may not insist upon her absolving me from this abominable oath?
Will you be so good as to give your advice, that one apartment may serve
for a man and his wife at the hour of retirement?--[Modestly put,
Belford!--And let me here observe, that few rakes would find a language
so decent as to engage modest women to talk with him in, upon such
subjects.]

They both simpered, and looked upon one another.

These subjects always make women simper, at least. No need but of the
most delicate hints to them. A man who is gross in a woman's company,
ought to be knocked down with a club: for, like so many musical
instruments, touch but a single wire, and the dear souls are sensible
all over.

To be sure, Miss Rawlins learnedly said, playing with her fan, a casuist
would give it, that the matrimonial vow ought to supercede any other
obligation.

Mrs. Moore, for her part, was of opinion, that, if the lady owned herself
to be a wife, she ought to behave like one.

Whatever be my luck, thought I, with this all-eyed fair-one, any other
woman in the world, from fifteen to five-and-twenty, would be mine upon
my own terms before the morning.

And now, that I may be at hand to take all advantages, I will endeavour,
said I to myself, to make sure of good quarters.

I am your lodger, Mrs. Moore, in virtue of the earnest I have given you
for these apartments, and for any one you can spare above for my
servants. Indeed for all you have to spare--For who knows what my
spouse's brother may attempt? I will pay you to your own demand; and
that for a month or two certain, (board inclu