ut Wilson, understanding that neither
she nor I were in town, [he could not know of our difference thou must
think,] resolved to take care of it till our return, in order to give it
into one of our own hands; and now delivered it to her messenger.'

This was told her. Wilson, I doubt not, is in her favour upon it.

She took the letter with great eagerness; opened it in a hurry, [am glad
she did; yet, I believe, all was right,] before Mrs. Moore and Mrs.
Bevis, [Miss Rawlins was gone home;] and said, she would not for the
world that I should have had that letter, for the sake of her dear friend
the writer, who had written to her very uneasily about it.

Her dear friend! repeated Mrs. Bevis, when she told me this:--such
mischief-makers are always deemed dear friends till they are found out!

The widow says that I am the finest gentleman she ever beheld.

I have found a warm kiss now-and-then very kindly taken.

I might be a very wicked fellow, Jack, if I were to do all the mischief
in my power. But I am evermore for quitting a too-easy prey to reptile
rakes! What but difficulty, (though the lady is an angel,) engages me to
so much perseverance here?--And here, conquer or die! is now the
determination!

***

I have just now parted with this honest widow. She called upon me at my
new lodgings. I told her, that I saw I must be further obliged to her in
the course of this difficult affair. She must allow me to make her a
handsome present when all was happily over. But I desired that she would
take no notice of what should pass between us, not even to her aunt; for
that she, as I saw, was in the power of Miss Rawlins: and Miss Rawlins,
being a maiden gentlewoman, knew not the right and the fit in matrimonial
matters, as she, my dear widow, did.

Very true: How should she? said Mrs. Bevis, proud of knowing--nothing!
But, for her part, she desired no present. It was enough if she could
contribute to reconcile man and wife, and disappoint mischief-makers.
She doubted not, that such an envious creature as Miss Howe was glad that
Mrs. Lovelace had eloped--jealousy and love was Old Nick!

See, Belford, how charmingly things work between me and my new
acquaintance, the widow!--Who knows, but that she may, after a little
farther intimacy, (though I am banished the house on nights,) contrive a
midnight visit for me to my spouse, when all is still and fast asleep?

Where can a woman be safe, who has once entered the