LETTER LII
MR. BELFORD, TO LORD M.LONDON, TUESDAY NIGHT, OCT. 3.
MY LORD,
I obey your Lordship's commands with great pleasure.
Yesterday in the afternoon Mr. Lovelace made me a visit at my lodgings.As I was in expectation of one from Colonel Morden about the same time,I thought proper to carry him to a tavern which neither of us frequented,(on pretence of a half-appointment;) ordering notice to be sent methither, if the Colonel came; and Mr. Lovelace sent to Mowbray, andTourville, and Mr. Doleman of Uxbridge, (who came to town to take leaveof him,) to let them know where to find us.
Mr. Lovelace is too well recovered, I was going to say. I never saw himmore gay, lively, and handsome. We had a good deal of bluster about someparts of the trust I had engaged in; and upon freedoms I had treated himwith; in which, he would have it, that I had exceeded our agreed-uponlimits; but on the arrival of our three old companions, and a nephew ofMr. Doleman's, (who had a good while been desirous to pass an hour withMr. Lovelace,) it blew off for the present.
Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Tourville had also taken some exceptions at thefreedoms of my pen; and Mr. Lovelace, after his way, took upon him toreconcile us; and did it at the expense of all three; and with such aninfinite run of humour and raillery, that we had nothing to do but tolaugh at what he said, and at one another. I can deal tolerably withhim at my pen; but in conversation he has no equal. In short, it was hisday. He was glad, he said, to find himself alive; and his two friends,clapping and rubbing their hands twenty times in an hour, declared, thatnow, once more, he was all himself--the charming'st fellow in the world;and they would follow him to the farthest part of the globe.
I threw a bur upon his coat now-and-then; but none would stick.
Your Lordship knows, that there are many things which occasion a roar ofapplause in conversation, when the heart is open, and men are resolved tobe merry, which will neither bear repeating, nor thinking of afterwards.Common things, in the mouth of a man we admire, and whose wit has passedupon us for sterling, become, in a gay hour, uncommon. We watch everyturn of such a one's countenance, and are resolved to laugh when hesmiles, even before he utters what we are expecting to flow from hislips.
Mr. Doleman and his nephew took leave of us by twelve, Mowbray andTourville grew very noisy by one, and were carried off by two. Winenever moves Mr. Lovelace, notwithstanding a vivacity which generallyhelps on over-gay spirits. As to myself, the little part I had takenin the gaiety kept me unconcerned.
The clock struck three before I could get him into any serious orattentive way--so natural to him is gaiety of heart; and such stronghold had the liveliness of the evening taken of him. His conversation,you know, my Lord, when his heart is free, runs off to the bottom withoutany dregs.
But after that hour, and when we thought of parting, he became a littlemore serious: and then he told me his designs, and gave me a plan of hisintended tour; wishing heartily that I could have accompanied him.
We parted about four; he not a little dissatisfied with me; for we hadsome talk about subjects, which, he said, he loved not to think of; towhit, Miss Harlowe's will; my executorship; papers I had in confidencecommunicated to that admirable lady (with no unfriendly design, I assureyour Lordship;) and he insisting upon, and I refusing, the return of theletters he had written to me, from the time that he had made his firstaddresses to her.
He would see me once again, he said; and it would be upon very ill termsif I complied not with his request. Which I bid him not expect. But,that I might not deny him every thing, I told him, that I would give hima copy of the will; though I was sure, I said, when he read it, he wouldwish he had never seen it.
I had a message from him about eleven this morning, desiring me to namea place at which to dine with him, and Mowbray, and Tourville, for thelast time: and soon after another from Colonel Morden, inviting me topass the evening with him at the Bedford-head in Covent-Garden. And,that I might keep them at distance from one another, I appointed Mr.Lovelace at the Eagle in Suffolk-street.
There I met him, and the two others. We began where we left off at ourlast parting; and were very high with each other. But, at last, all wasmade up, and he offered to forget and forgive every thing, on conditionthat I would correspond with him while abroad, and continue the serieswhich had been broken through by his illness; and particularly give him,as I had offered, a copy of the lady's last will.
I promised him: and he then fell to rallying me on my gravity, and on myreformation-schemes, as he called them. As we walked about the room,expecting dinner to be brought in, he laid his hand upon my shoulder;then pushed me from him with a curse; walking round me, and surveying mefrom head to foot; then calling for the observations of the others, heturned round upon his heel, and with one of his peculiar wild airs, 'Ha,ha, ha, ha,' burst he out, 'that these sour-faced proselytes should takeit into their heads that they cannot be pious, without forfeiting boththeir good-nature and good-manners!--Why, Jack,' turning me about,'pr'ythee look up, man!--Dost thou not know, that religion, if it hastaken proper hold of the heart, is the most cheerful countenance-makerin the world?--I have heard my beloved Miss Harlowe say so: and she knew,or nobody did. And was not her aspect a benign proof of the observation?But thy these wamblings in thy cursed gizzard, and thy awkward grimaces,I see thou'rt but a novice in it yet!--Ah, Belford, Belford, thou hasta confounded parcel of briers and thorns to trample over barefoot, beforereligion will illuminate these gloomy features!'
I give your Lordship this account, in answer to your desire to know, if Ithink him the man he was.
In our conversation at dinner, he was balancing whether he should set outthe next morning, or the morning after. But finding he had nothing todo, and Col. Morden being in town, (which, however, I told him not of,) Iturned the scale; and he agreed upon setting out to-morrow morning; theyto see him embark; and I promised to accompany them for a morning's ride(as they proposed their horses); but said, that I must return in theafternoon.
With much reluctance they let me go to my evening's appointment: theylittle thought with whom: for Mr. Lovelace had put it as a case of honourto all of us, whether, as he had been told that Mr. Morden and Mr. JamesHarlowe had thrown out menaces against him, he ought to leave the kingdomtill he had thrown himself in their way.
Mowbray gave his opinion, that he ought to leave it like a man of honouras he was; and if he did not take those gentlemen to task for theiropprobrious speeches, that at least he should be seen by them in publicbefore he went away; else they might give themselves airs, as if he hadleft the kingdom in fear of them.
To this he himself so much inclined, that it was with difficulty Ipersuaded him, that, as they had neither of them proceeded to a directand formal challenge; as they knew he had not made himself difficult ofaccess; and as he had already done the family injury enough; and it wasMiss Harlowe's earnest desire, that he would be content with that; he hadno reason, from any point of honour, to delay his journey; especially ashe had so just a motive for his going, as the establishing of his health;and as he might return the sooner, if he saw occasion for it.
I found the Colonel in a very solemn way. We had a good deal ofdiscourse upon the subject of certain letters which had passed between usin relation to Miss Harlowe's will, and to her family. He has someaccounts to settle with his banker; which, he says, will be adjustedto-morrow; and on Thursday he proposes to go down again, to take leave ofhis friends; and then intends to set out directly for Italy.
I wish Mr. Lovelace could have been prevailed upon to take any othertour, than that of France and Italy. I did propose Madrid to him; but helaughed at me, and told me, that the proposal was in character from amule; and from one who was become as grave as a Spaniard of the old cut,at ninety.
I expressed to the Colonel my apprehensions, that his cousin's dyinginjunctions would not have the force upon him that were to be wished.
'They have great force upon me, Mr. Belford,' said he; 'or one worldwould no
t have held Mr. Lovelace and me thus long. But my intention isto go to Florence; and not to lay my bones there, as upon my cousin'sdeath I told you I thought to do; but to settle all my affairs in thoseparts, and then to come over, and reside upon a little paternal estate inKent, which is strangely gone to ruin in my absence. Indeed, were I tomeet Mr. Lovelace, either here or abroad, I might not be answerable forthe consequence.'
He would have engaged me for to-morrow. But having promised to attendMr. Lovelace on his journey, as I have mentioned, I said, I was obligedto go out of town, and was uncertain as to the time of my return in theevening. And so I am to see him on Thursday morning at my own lodgings.
I will do myself the honour to write again to your Lordship to-morrownight. Mean time, I am, my Lord,
Your Lordship's, &c.