when my uncle Antony, having given them a patient hearing, declared,
'That he thought the gentleman behaved like a gentleman; his niece
Clary with prudence; and that a more honourable alliance for the
family, as he had often told them, could not be wished for: since Mr.
Lovelace had a very good paternal estate; and that, by the evidence of
an enemy, all clear. Nor did it appear, that he was so bad a man as
he had been represented to be: wild indeed; but it was a gay time of
life: he was a man of sense: and he was sure that his niece would not
have him, if she had not good reason to think him reformed, or that
there was a likelihood that she could reform him by her example.'

My uncle then gave one instance, my aunt told me, as a proof of a
generosity in Mr. Lovelace's spirit, which convinced him that he was
not a bad man in nature; and that he was of a temper, he was pleased
to say, like my own; which was, That when he (my uncle) had
represented to him, that he might, if he pleased, make three or four
hundred pounds a year of his paternal estate, more than he did; he
answered, 'That his tenants paid their rents well: that it was a maxim
with his family, from which he would by no means depart, Never to
rack-rent old tenants, or their descendants; and that it was a
pleasure to him, to see all his tenants look fat, sleek, and
contented.'

I indeed had once occasionally heard him say something like this; and
thought he never looked so well as at that time;--except once; and
that was in an instance given by him on the following incident.

An unhappy tenant of my uncle Antony came petitioning to my uncle for
forbearance, in Mr. Lovelace's presence. When he had fruitlessly
withdrawn, Mr. Lovelace pleaded his cause so well, that the man was