been at her uncle Harlowe's for near ten months [this I had heard from
her before]: and there were several gentlemen who used the same green,
whom she knew not.

We are all very ready, thou knowest, to believe what she likes.

And what was the reason, thinkest thou, that she had not been of so long
a time at this uncle's?--Why, this old sinner, who imagines himself
entitled to call me to account for my freedoms with the sex, has lately
fallen into familiarities, as it is suspected, with his housekeeper; who
assumes airs upon it.--A cursed deluding sex!--In youth, middle age, or
dotage, they take us all in.

Dost thou not see, however, that this housekeeper knows nothing, nor is
to know any thing, of the treaty of reconciliation designed to be set on
foot; and therefore the uncle always comes to the Captain, the Captain
goes not to the uncle? And this I surmised to the lady. And then it was
a natural suggestion, that the Captain was the rather applied to, as he
is a stranger to the rest of the family--Need I tell thee the meaning of
all this?

But this intrigue of the antient is a piece of private history, the truth
of which my beloved cares not to own, and indeed affects to disbelieve:
as she does also some puisny gallantries of her foolish brother; which,
by way of recrimination, I have hinted at, without naming my informant in
their family.

'Well but, methinks, thou questionest again, Is it not probable that Miss
Howe will make inquiry after such a man as Tomlinson?--And when she
cannot--'