my errors, and, as my severe father imprecated, the punisher
of the errors he has caused, might have had of me, or of my honour, I
would have forgiven him for them, if he had fairly proposed them to me:
for some doubts perhaps such a man might have of the future conduct of a
creature whom he could induce to correspond with him against parental
prohibition, and against the lights which her own judgment threw in upon
her: and if he had propounded them to me like a man and a gentleman, I
would have been glad of the opportunity given me to clear my intentions,
and to have shown myself entitled to his good opinion--and I hope you,
Sir--

Capt. I am ready to hear all your doubts, Madam, and to clear them up--

Cl. I will only put it, Sir, to your conscience and honour--

The dog sat uneasy--he shuffled with his feet--her eye was upon him--he
was, therefore, after the rebuff he had met with, afraid to look at me
for my motions; and now turned his eyes towards me, then from me, as if
he would unlook his own looks.

Cl. That all is true, that you have written, and that you have told me.

I gave him a right forward nod, and a frown--as much as to say, swear to
it, Captain. But the varlet did not round it off as I would have had
him. However, he averred that it was.

He had hoped, he said, that the circumstances with which his commission
was attended, and what he had communicated to her, which he could not
know but from his dear friend, her uncle, might have shielded him even
from the shadow of suspicion. But I am contented, said he, stammering,
to be thought--to be thought--what--what you please to think of me--till,
till, you are satisfied--

A whore's-bird!

Cl. The circumstances you refer to, I must own ought to shield you,
Sir, from suspicion; but the man before you is a man that would make an
angel suspected, should that angel plead for him.

I came forward,--traversed the room,--was indeed in a bl--dy passion.--I
have no patience, Madam!--and again I bit my unpersuasive lips.

Cl. No man ought to be impatient at imputations he is not ashamed to
deserve. An innocent man will not be outrageous upon such imputations.
A guilty man ought not. [Most excellently would this charming creature
cap sentences with Lord M.!] But I am not now trying you, Sir, [to me,]
on the foot of your merits. I am only sorry that I am constrained to put
questions to this worthier gentleman, [worthier gentleman, Jack!] which