fting up his
eyes----

'But if I live to come to England, and you remain fixed in your present
way, and can give me encouragement, I hope rather to follow your example,
than to ridicule you for it. This will [for I had given him a copy of
it] I will make the companion of my solitary hours. You have told me a
part of its melancholy contents; and that, and her posthumous letter,
shall be my study; and they will prepare me for being your disciple, if
you hold on.

'You, Jack, may marry,' continued he; 'and I have a wife in my eye for
you.--Only thou'rt such an awkward mortal:' [he saw me affected, and
thought to make me smile:] 'but we don't make ourselves, except it be
worse by our dress. Thou art in mourning now, as well as I: but if ever
thy ridiculous turn lead thee again to be beau-brocade, I will bedizen
thee, as the girls say, on my return, to my own fancy, and according to
thy own natural appearance----Thou shalt doctor my soul, and I will
doctor thy body: thou shalt see what a clever fellow I will make of thee.

'As for me, I never will, I never can, marry--that I will not take a few
liberties, and that I will not try to start some of my former game, I
won't promise--habits are not so easily shaken off--but they shall be by
way of wearing. So return and reform shall go together.

'And now, thou sorrowful monkey, what aileth thee?' I do love him, my
Lord.

'Adieu!--And once more adieu!'--embracing me. 'And when thou thinkest
thou hast made thyself an interest out yonder (looking up) then put in
a word for thy Lovelace.'

Joining company, he recommended to me to write often; and promised to let
me hear quickly from him; and that he would write to your Lordship, and
to all his family round; for he said, that you had all been more kind to
him than he had deserved.

And so we parted.

I hope, my Lord, for all your noble family's sake, that we shall see him
soon return, and reform, as he promises.

I return your Lordship my humble thanks for the honour of your invitation
to M. Hall. The first letter I receive from Mr. Lovelace shall give me
the opportunity of embracing it. I am, my Lord,

Your most faithful and obedient servant,
J. BELFORD.

LETTER LIV

MR. BELFORD, TO LORD M.
THURSDAY MORNING, OCT. 5.

It may be some satisfaction to your Lordship, to have a brief account of
what has just now passed between Colonel Morden and me.

We had a good deal of discourse about the Harlowe family