think of leaving me for six hours together; and he had prepared the widow
to expect, that we should be here but for a few days; only till we could
fix ourselves in a house suitable to our condition; and this, that I
might be under the less embarrassment, if I pleased to remove.

Fix our-selves in a house, and we, and our, Mr. Lovelace--Pray, in what
light--

He interrupted me--Why, my dearest life, if you will hear me with
patience--yet, I am half afraid that I have been too forward, as I have
not consulted you upon it--but as my friends in town, according to what
Mr. Doleman has written, in the letter you have seen, conclude us to be
married--

Surely, Sir, you have not presumed--

Hear me out, my dearest creature--you have received with favour, my
addresses: you have made me hope for the honour of your consenting hand:
yet, by declining my most fervent tender of myself to you at Mrs.
Sorlings's, have given me apprehensions of delay: I would not for the
world be thought so ungenerous a wretch, now you have honoured me with
your confidence, as to wish to precipitate you. Yet your brother's
schemes are not given up. Singleton, I am afraid, is actually in town;
his vessel lies at Rotherhithe--your brother is absent from Harlowe-
place; indeed not with Singleton yet, as I can hear. If you are known
to be mine, or if you are but thought to be so, there will probably be an
end of your brother's contrivances. The widow's character may be as
worthy as it is said to be. But the worthier she is, the more danger,
if your brother's agent should find us out; since she may be persuaded,
that she ought in conscience to take a parent's part against a child who