He then told them, that he had the day before waited upon Miss Howe, and
had been shown a letter from you to her,* and permitted to take some
memorandums from it, in which you appeared, both by handwriting, and the
contents, to be so very ill, that it seemed doubtful to him, if it were
possible for you to get over it. And when he read to them that passage,
where you ask Miss Howe, 'What can be done for you now, were your friends
to be ever so favourable? and wish for their sakes, more than for your
own, that they would still relent;' and then say, 'You are very ill--you
must drop your pen--and ask excuse for your crooked writing; and take, as
it were, a last farewell of Miss Howe;--adieu, my dear, adieu,' are your
words--

* Ibid. Letter XXXIII.

O my child! my child! said you mamma, weeping, and clasping her hands.

Dear Madam, said your brother, be so good as to think you have more
children than this ungrateful one.

Yet your sister seemed affected.

Your uncle Harlowe, wiping his eyes, O cousin, said he, if one thought
the poor girl was really so ill--

She must, said your uncle Antony. This is written to her private friend.
God forbid she should be quite lost!

Your uncle Harlowe wished they did not carry their resentments too far.

I begged for God's sake, wringing my hands, and with a bended knee, that
they would permit me to go up to you; engaging to give them a faithful
account of the way you were in. But I was chidden by your brother; and
this occasioned some angry words between him and Mr. Morden.

I believe, Sir, I believe, Madam, said your sister to her father and
mother, we need not trouble my cousin to read any more. It does but
grieve and disturb you. My sister Clary seems to be ill: I think, if
Mrs. Norton were permitted to go up to her, it would be right; wickedly
as she has acted, if she be truly penitent--

Here she stopt; and every one being silent, I stood up once more, and
besought them to let me go; and then I offered to read a passage or two
in your letter to me of the 24th. But I was taken up again by your
brother, and this occasioned still higher words between the Colonel and
him.

Your mother, hoping to gain upon your inflexible brother, and to divert
the anger of the two gentlemen from each other, proposed that the Colonel
should proceed in reading the minutes he had taken from your letter.

He accordingly read, 'of your resuming your pen; that you thought you had