n it. Nor,
if I choose to have it so, will he appear to visit me; nor presume to
mention marriage to me till all is quiet and easy; till every method I
shall prescribe for a reconciliation with my friends is tried; till my
cousin comes; till such settlements are drawn as he shall approve of for
me; and that I have unexceptionable proofs of his own good behaviour.'

As to the disgrace a person of my character may be apprehensive of upon
quitting my father's house, he observes (too truly I doubt) 'That the
treatment I meet with is in every one's mouth: yet, he says, that the
public voice is in my favour. My friends themselves, he says, expect
that I will do myself what he calls, this justice: why else do they
confine me? He urges, that, thus treated, the independence I have a
right to will be my sufficient excuse, going but from their house to my
own, if I choose that measure; or in order to take possession of my
own, if I do not: that all the disgrace I can receive, they have already
given me: that his concern and his family's concern in my honour, will
be equal to my own, if he may be so happy ever to call me his: and he
presumes, he says, to aver, that no family can better supply the loss
of my own friends to me than his, in whatever way I shall do them the
honour to accept of his and their protection.

'But he repeats, that, in all events, he will oppose my being carried to
my uncle's; being well assured, that I shall be lost to him for ever, if
once I enter into that house.' He tells me, 'That my brother and sister,
and Mr. Solmes, design to be there to receive me: that my father and
mother will not come near me till the ceremony is actually over: and
that then they will appear, in order to try to reconcile me to my odious
husband, by urging upon me the obligations I shall be supposed to be
under from a double duty.'

How, my dear, am I driven on one side, and invited on the other!--This
last intimation is but a too probable one. All the steps they take seem
to tend to this! And, indeed, they have declared almost as much.

He owns, 'That he has already taken his measures upon this
intelligence:--but that he is so desirous for my sake (I must suppose,
he says, that he owes them no forbearance for their own) to avoid coming
to extremities, that he has suffered a person, whom they do not suspect,
to acquaint them with his resolutions, as if come at by accident, if
they persist in their design to carry me by violence