He mentioned what had passed in the interview between you: but could not
be satisfied with the result of it, and with the little satisfaction he
had obtained from you: the malice of your family to him increasing, and
their cruelty to you not abating. His heart, he told me, was in tumults,
for fear you should be prevailed upon in favour of a man despised by
every body.

He gave me fresh instance of indignities cast upon himself by your uncles
and brother; and declared, that if you suffered yourself to be forced
into the arms of the man for whose sake he was loaded with undeserved
abuses, you should be one of the youngest, as you would be one of the
loveliest widows in England. And that he would moreover call your
brother to account for the liberties he takes with his character to every
one he meets with.

He proposed several schemes, for you to choose some one of them, in order
to enable you to avoid the persecutions you labour under: One I will
mention--That you will resume your estate; and if you find difficulties
that can be no otherwise surmounted, that you will, either avowedly or
privately, as he had proposed to you, accept of Lady Betty Lawrance's or
Lord M.'s assistance to instate you in it. He declared, that if you did,
he would leave absolutely to your own pleasure afterwards, and to the
advice which your cousin Morden on his arrival should give you, whether
to encourage his address, or not, as you should be convinced of the
sincerity of the reformation which his enemies make him so much want.

I had now a good opportunity to sound him, as you wished Mr. Hickman
would Lord M. as to the continued or diminished favour of the ladies, and
of his Lordship, towards you, upon their being acquainted with the