having, to endeavour to obtain her?--Oh that my friends would but leave
me to my own way in this one point! For have I given the man
encouragement sufficient to ground these threats upon? Were Mr. Solmes a
man to whom I could but be indifferent, it might be found, that to have
spirit, would very little answer the views of that spirit. It is my
fortune to be treated as a fool by my brother: but Mr. Lovelace shall
find--Yet I will let him know my mind; and then it will come with a
better grace to your knowledge.

Mean time, give me leave to tell you, that it goes against me, in my
cooler moments, unnatural as my brother is to me, to have you, my dear,
who are my other self, write such very severe reflections upon him, in
relation to the advantage Lovelace had over him. He is not indeed your
brother: but remember, that you write to his sister.--Upon my word, my
dear Miss Howe, you dip your pen in gall whenever you are offended: and I
am almost ready to question, whether I read some of your expressions
against others of my relations as well as him, (although in my favour,)
whether you are so thoroughly warranted to call other people to account
for their warmth. Should we not be particularly careful to keep clear of
the faults we censure?--And yet I am so angry both at my brother and
sister, that I should not have taken this liberty with my dear friend,
notwithstanding I know you never loved them, had you not made so light of
so shocking a transaction where a brother's life was at stake: when his
credit in the eye of the mischievous sex has received a still deeper
wound than he personally sustained; and when a revival of the same wicked
resentments (which may end more fatally) is threatened.

His credit, I say, in the eye of the mischievous sex: Who is not
warranted to call it so; when it is re (as the two libertines his
companions gloried) to resolve never to give a challenge; and among whom