reat seriousness lamenting that he had lost it; declaring, that he
knew not how he had deserved to do so; attributing to me an indifference
to him, that seemed, to his infinite concern, hourly to increase, And
he besought me to let him know my whole mind, that he might have an
opportunity either to confess his faults and amend them, or clear his
conduct to my satisfaction, and thereby entitle himself to a greater
share of my confidence.

I answered him with quickness--Then, Mr. Lovelace, I will tell you one
thing with a frankness, that is, perhaps, more suitable to my character
than to yours, [He hoped not, he said,] which gives me a very bad
opinion of you, as a designing, artful man.

I am all attention, Madam.

I never can think tolerably of you, while the noise and voice I heard at
the garden-door, which put me into the terror you took so much advantage
of, remains unaccounted for. Tell me fairly, tell me candidly, the
whole of that circumstance; and of your dealings with that wicked Joseph
Leman; and, according to your explicitness in this particular, I shall
form a judgment of your future professions.

I will, without reserve, my dearest life, said he, tell you the whole;
and hope that my sincerity in the relation will atone for any thing you
may think wrong in the fact.

'I knew nothing, said he, of this man, this Leman, and should have
scorned a resort to so low a method as bribing the servant of any family
to let me into the secrets of that family, if I had not detected him
in attempting to corrupt a servant of mine, to inform him of all my
motions, of all my supposed intrigues, and, in short, of every action
of my private life, as well as of my circumstances and engagements; and
this for motives too obvious to be dwelt upon.

'My servant told me of his offers, and I ordered him, unknown to the
fellow, to let me hear a conversation that was to pass between them.

'In the midst of it, and just as he had made an offer of money for a
particular piece of intelligence, promising more when procured, I broke
in upon them, and by bluster, calling for a knife to cut off his ears
(one of which I took hold of) in order to make a present of it, as I
said, to his employers, I obliged him to tell me who they were.

'Your brother, Madam, and your uncle Antony, he named.

'It was not difficult, when I had given him my pardon on naming them,
(after I had set before him the enormity of the task he had undertaken,
and t