“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,
Letter 528
Mr. Belford, to Lord M.
Thursday Morning,
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, and those parts of the lady’s will which still remain unexecuted; after which the Colonel addressed himself to me in a manner which gave me some surprise.
He flattered himself, he said, from my present happy turn, and from my good constitution, that I should live a great many years. It was therefore his request, that I would consent to be his executor; since it was impossible for him to make a better choice, or pursue a better example, than his cousin had set.
His heart, he said was in it: there were some things in his cousin’s will and his analogous: and he had named one person to me, with whom he was sure I would not refuse to be joined: and to whom he intended to apply for his consent, when he had obtained mine.414 [Intimating, as far as I could gather, that it was Mr. Hickman, son of Sir Charles Hickman; to whom I know your Lordship is not a stranger: for he said, Everyone who was dear to his beloved cousin, must be so to him: and he knew that the gentleman who he had thoughts of, would have, besides my advice and assistance, the advice of one of the most sensible ladies in England.]
He took my hand, seeing me under some surprise: you must not hesitate, much less deny me, Mr. Belford. Indeed you must not. Two things I will assure you of: that I have, as I hope, made everything so clear that you cannot have any litigation: and that I have done so justly, and I hope it will be thought so generously, by all my relations, that a mind like yours will rather have pleasure than pain in the execution of this trust. And this is what I think every honest man, who hopes to find an honest man for his executor, should do.
I told him, that I was greatly obliged to him for his good opinion of me: that it was so much every man’s duty to be an honest man, that it could not be interpreted as vanity to say, that I had no doubt to be found so. But if I accepted of this trust, it must be on condition—
I could name no condition, he said, interrupting me, which he would refuse to comply with.
This condition, I told him, was, that as there was as great a probability of his being my survivor, as I his, he would permit me to name him for mine; and, in that case, a week should not pass before I made my will.
With all his heart, he said; and the readier, as he had no apprehensions of suddenly dying; for what he had done and requested was really the effect of the satisfaction he had taken in the part I had already acted as his cousin’s executor; and in my ability, he was pleased to add: as well as in pursuance of his cousin’s advice in the preamble of her will; to wit; “That this was a work which should be set about in full health, both of body and mind.”
I told him, that I was pleased to hear him say that he was not in any apprehension of suddenly dying; as this gave me assurance that he had laid aside all thoughts of acting contrary to the dying request of his beloved cousin.
Does it argue, said
