r
said on the subject: and the bishop once intimated, that, be the event
what it would, his journey to Italy should be made the most beneficial
affair to him he had ever engaged in. Mr. Lowther replied, that as he
was neither a necessitous nor a mean-spirited man, and had reason to be
entirely satisfied with the terms I had already secured to him; he should
take it unkindly, if any other reward were offered him.

Think, my dear Dr. Bartlett, what emotions I must have on entering, once
more, the gates of the Porretta palace, though Clementina was not there.

I hastened up to my Jeronymo, who had been apprized of my arrival. The
moment he saw me, Do I once more, said he, behold my friend, my
Grandison? Let me embrace the dearest of men. Now, now, have I lived
long enough. He bowed his head upon his pillow, and meditated me; his
countenance shining with pleasure in defiance of pain.

The bishop entered: he could not be present at our first interview.

My lord, said Jeronymo, make it your care that my dear friend be treated,
by every soul of our family, with the gratitude and respect which are due
to his goodness. Methinks I am easier and happier, this moment, than I
have been for the tedious space of time since I last saw him. He named
that space of time to the day, and to the very hour of the day.

The marquis and marchioness signifying their pleasure to see me, the
bishop led me to them. My reception from the marquis was kind; from his
lady it was as that of a mother to a long-absent son. I had ever been,
she was pleased to say, a fourth son in her eye; and now, that she had
been informed that I had brought over with me a surgeon of experience,
and the advice in writing of eminent physicians of my country, the
obligations I had laid on their whole family, whatever were the success,
were unreturnable.

I asked leave to introduce Mr. Lowther to them. They received him with
great politeness, and recommended their Jeronymo to his best skill. Mr.
Lowther's honest heart was engaged, by a reception so kind. He never, he
told me afterwards, beheld so much pleasure and pain struggling in the
same countenance, as in that of the lady; so fixed a melancholy, as in
that of the marquis.

Mr. Lowther is a man of spirit, though a modest man. He is, as on every
proper occasion I found, a man of piety; and has a heart tender as manly.
Such a man, heart and hand, is qualified for a profession which is the
most useful and certain in