especially in a point wherein he pretends his heart is so much
engaged: and no absolute prohibition having been given, things went on
for a little while as before: for I saw plainly, that to have denied
myself to his visits (which however I declined receiving as often as I
could) was to bring forward some desperate issue between the two;
since the offence so readily given on one side was brooked by the
other only out of consideration to me.

And thus did my brother's rashness lay me under an obligation where I
would least have owed it.

The intermediate proposals of Mr. Symmes and Mr. Mullins, both (in
turn) encouraged by my brother, induced him to be more patient for a
while, as nobody thought me over-forward in Mr. Lovelace's favour; for
he hoped that he should engage my father and uncles to approve of the
one or the other in opposition to the man he hated. But when he found
that I had interest enough to disengage myself from the addresses of
those gentlemen, as I had (before he went to Scotland, and before Mr.
Lovelace visited here) of Mr. Wyerley's, he then kept no measures: and
first set himself to upbraid me for supposed prepossession, which he
treated as if it were criminal; and then to insult Mr. Lovelace in
person, at Mr. Edward Symmes's, the brother of the other Symmes, two
miles off; and no good Dr. Lewen being there to interpose, the unhappy
rencounter followed. My brother was disarmed, as you have heard; and
on being brought home, and giving us ground to suppose he was much
worse hurt than he really was, and a fever ensuing, every one flamed
out; and all was laid at my door.

Mr. Lovelace for three days together sent twice each day to inquire
after my brother's health; and although he received rude and even