tender concern
lest I may have been prevented by indisposition, or by the closer
confinement which he has frequently cautioned me that I may expect.'

He says, 'He had been in different disguises loitering about our garden
and park wall, all the day on Sunday last; and all Sunday night was
wandering about the coppice, and near the back door. It rained; and he
has got a great cold, attended with feverishness, and so hoarse, that he
has almost lost his voice.'

Why did he not flame out in his letter?--Treated as I am treated by my
friends, it is dangerous to be laid under the sense of an obligation to
an addresser's patience; especially when such a one suffers in health
for my sake.

'He had no shelter, he says, but under the great overgrown ivy, which
spreads wildly round the heads of two or three oaklings; and that was
soon wet through.'

You remember the spot. You and I, my dear, once thought ourselves
obliged to the natural shade which those ivy-covered oaklings afforded
us, in a sultry day.

I can't help saying, I am sorry he has suffered for my sake; but 'tis
his own seeking.

His letter is dated last night at eight: 'And, indisposed as he is,
he tells me that he will watch till ten, in hopes of my giving him the
meeting he so earnestly request. And after that, he has a mile to walk
to his horse and servant; and four miles then to ride to his inn.'

He owns, 'That he has an intelligencer in our family; who has failed
him for a day or two past: and not knowing how I do, or how I may be
treated, his anxiety is increased.'

This circumstance gives me to guess who this intelligencer is: Joseph
Leman: the very creature employed and confided in, more than any other,
by my brother.

This is not an honourable way of proceeding in Mr. Lovelace. Did
he learn this infamous practice of corrupting the servants of other
families at the French court, where he resided a good while?

I have been often jealous of this Leman in my little airings and
poultry-visits. Doubly obsequious as he was always to me, I have
thought him my brother's spy upon me; and although he obliged me by
his hastening out of the garden and poultry-yard, whenever I came into
either, have wondered, that from his reports my liberties of those kinds
have not been abridged.* So, possibly, this man may be bribed by both,
yet betray both. Worthy views want not such obliquities as these on
either side. An honest mind must rise into indignation both at th