s--his bringing
you to bear with his lodging in the same house--his making you pass to
the other people of it as his wife--his bringing you into the company of
his libertine companions--the attempt of imposing upon you that Miss
Partington for a bedfellow, &c.

[My reasons for a contrary opinion, to wit, that he is now resolved to do
you all the justice in his power to do you,] are these:--That he sees
that all his own family* have warmly engaged themselves in your cause:
that the horrid wretch loves you; with such a love, however, as Herod
loved his Mariamne: that, on inquiry, I find it to be true, that
Counsellor Williams, (whom Mr. Hickman knows to be a man of eminence in
his profession,) has actually as good as finished the settlements: that
two draughts of them have been made; one avowedly to be sent to this very
Captain Tomlinson:--and I find, that a license has actually been more
than once endeavoured to be obtained, and that difficulties have hitherto
been made, equally to Lovelace's vexation and disappointment. My
mother's proctor, who is very intimate with the proctor applied to by the
wretch, has come at this information in confidence; and hints, that, as
Mr. Lovelace is a man of high fortunes, these difficulties will probably
be got over.

* See Letter XX. of this volume.

[I had once resolved to make strict inquiry about Tomlinson; and still,
if you will, your uncle's favourite housekeeper may be sounded at a
distance.]

[I know that the matter is so laid,*] that Mrs. Hodges is supposed to
know nothing of the treaty set on foot by means of Captain Tomlinson.
But your uncle is an--

* See Letter XX. of this volume.

But your uncle is an old man;* and old men imagine themselves to be under
obligation to their paramours, if younger than themselves, and seldom
keep any thing from their knowledge.--Yet, methinks, there can be no
need; since Tomlinson, as you describe him, is so good a man, and so much
of a gentleman; the end to be answered by his being an impostor so much
more than necessary, if Lovelace has villany in his head.--And thus what
he communicated to you of Mr. Hickman's application to your uncle, and of
Mrs. Norton's to your mother (some of which particulars I am satisfied
his vile agent Joseph Leman could not reveal to his viler employer); his
pushing on the marriage-day in the name of your uncle; which it could not
answer any wicked purpose for him to do; and what he writes of your