tly call me to town, and are
part of my present business;) and partly for the sake of occupying a
neglected farm, which has lately fallen into my hands. But though an
acquaintance of no longer standing, and that commencing on the bowling-
green, [uncle John is a great bowler, Belford,] (upon my decision of a
point to every one's satisfaction, which was appealed to me by all the
gentlemen, and which might have been attended with bad consequences,) no
two brothers have a more cordial esteem for each other. You know, Mr.
Lovelace, that there is a consent, as I may call it, in some minds, which
will unite them stronger together in a few hours, than years can do with
others, whom yet we see not with disgust.'

Lovel. Very true, Captain.

Capt. 'It was on the foot of this avowed friendship on both sides, that
on Monday the 15th, as I very well remember, Mr. Harlowe invited himself
home with me. And when there, he acquainted me with the whole of the
unhappy affair that had made them all so uneasy. Till then I knew it
only by report; for, intimate as we were, I forbore to speak of what was
so near his heart, till he began first. And then he told me, that he had
had an application made to him, two or three days before, by a gentleman
whom he named,* to induce him not only to be reconciled himself to his
niece, but to forward for her a general reconciliation.

* See Vol. IV. Letters XXIII and XXIX.

'A like application, he told me, had been made to his sister Harlowe, by
a good woman, whom every body respected; who had intimated, that his
niece, if encouraged, would again put herself into the protection of her
friends, and leave you: but if not, that she must unavoidably be your's.'

I hope, Mr. Lovelace, I make no mischief.--You look concerned--you sigh,
Sir.

Proceed, Captain Tomlinson. Pray proceed.--And I sighed still more
profoundly.

Capt. 'They all thought it extremely particular, that a lady should
decline marriage with a man she had so lately gone away with.'

Pray, Captain--pray, Mr. Tomlinson--no more of this subject. My beloved
is an angel. In every thing unblamable. Whatever faults there have
been, have been theirs and mine. What you would further say, is, that
the unforgiving family rejected her application. They did. She and I
had a misunderstanding. The falling out of lovers--you know, Captain.
--We have been happier ever since.

Capt. 'Well, Sir; but Mr. John Harlowe could not