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I told you in my former, that the person to whom Sir Charles was fent for out, was Mr Bagenhall; and that Sir Charles had fent in for Mr Reeves, who returned to the company with a countenance that I did not like fo well as I did Sir Charles's. I now proceed to give you, from minutes of Mr Reeves, what paffed on the occafion.

Sir Charles took Mr Reeves afide-This unhappy man (Sir Hargrave, I mean, faid he) feems to me to want an excufe to himself, for putting up with a treatment which he thinks disgraceful. When we have to deal with children, humours must be a little allowed for. But you will hear what the propofal is now. Let not the ladies, however, nor the gentlemen within, know any thing of the matter till all is over. This is a day devoted to pleasure. But you, Mr Reeves, know fomething of the matter; and can answer for your fair coufin.

He then led Mr Reeves in to Mr Bagenhall.

This, Sir, is Mr Reeves.-Sir Hargrave, in fhort, Mr Reeves, among other demands that I cannot comply with (but which relate only to myself, and therefore need not be mentioned), infifts upon an introduction to Mifs Byron. He fays, fhe is abfolutely disengaged-Is the, Sir?

I dare fay the is, anfwered my cousin.

This gentleman has been naming to me Mr Greville, Mr Orme, and others.

No one of them has ever met with the fhadow of encouragement from my cousin. She is above keeping any man in fufpence, when fhe is not in any herself. Nothing has given her more uneafinefs than the number of her admirers.

Mifs Byron, faid Sir Charles, must be admired by every one that beholds her; but still more by thofe who are admitted to the honour of converfing with her. But Sir Hargrave is willing to build upon her difengagement fomething in his own favour. Is VOL. II. C

their

there any room for Sir Hargrave, who pleads his fufferings for her; who vows his honourable intentions even at the time that he was hoping to gain her by fo unmanly a violence; and appeals to her for the purity, as he calls it, of his behaviour to her all the time fhe was in his hands-who makes

very large offers of fettlements-Is there any room to hope that Mifs Byron

No, none at all, Sir Charles

What! not to fave a life, Mr Reeves ?-faid Mr Bagenhall.

If you mean mine, Mr Bagenhall, replied Sir Charles, I beg that may not be confidered. If Sir Hargrave means his own, I will pronounce that it is fafe from any premeditated refentment of mine. Do you think Mifs Byron will bear to fee Sir Hargrave, Mr Reeves? I prefume he intends to beg pardon of her. Will fhe consent to receive a visit from him?-But is not this wretched trifling, Mr Bagenhall?

You will remember, Sir Charles, this is a propofal of mine: What I hoped might be agreed to by Sir Hargrave; but that I was willing to confult you before I mentioned it to him.

I beg your pardon, Mr Bagenhall: I now re

member it.

If ever man doated upon a woman, faid Mr Bagenhall, it is Sir Hargrave on Mifs Byron. The very methods he took to obtain her for a wife fhew that moft convincingly.-You will promife not to ftand in his way, Sir?

I repeat, Mr Bagenhall, what I have heretofore told you, That Mifs Byron (You will excufe me, Mr Reeves) is ftill under my protection. If Sir Hargrave, as he ought, is inclined to atk her pardon; and if he can obtain it, and even upon his own terms, I fhall think Mifs Byron and he may be happier together, than at prefent I can imagine

it poffible. I am not defirous to be any-ways confidered but as her protector from violence and in fult; and that I will be, if the claims it, in défiance of a hundred fuch men as Sir Hargrave. But then, Sir, the occafion must be sudden: No legal relief must be at hand. I will not, either for an adverfary's fake, or my own, be defied into a cool and premeditated vengeance.

But, Sir Charles, Sir Hargrave has fome hardfhips in this case. You will not give him the fatisfaction of a gentleman: And, according to the laws of honour, a man is not entitled to be treated as a gentleman, who denies to one

Of whole making, Mr Bagenhall, are the laws of honour you mention? I own no laws, but the laws of God and my country. But, to cut this matter fhort, tell Sir Hargrave, that little as is the dependence a man of honour can have upon that of a man, who has acted by an helpless woman, as he has acted by Mifs Byron, I will breakfaft with him in his own houfe to-morrow morning, if he contradicts it not. I will attribute to the violence of his paffion for the lady, the unmanly outrage he was guilty of. I will fuppofe him mistaken enough to imagine, that he fhould make her amends by marriage, if he could com pel her hand; and will truft my perfon to his honour, one fervant only to walk before his door, not to enter the houfe, to attend my commands, after our converfation is over. My fword, and my fword only, fhall be my companion: But this rather, that I would not be thought to owe my fafety to the want of it, than in expectation, after fuch confidence placed in him, to have occafion to draw it in my own defence. And pray, Mr Bagenhall, do you, his friend, be prefent; and any other friends, and to what number he pleases.

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When I came to this place in my coufin's minutes, I was aftonished; I was out of breath upon it.

Mr Bagenhall was furprised; and asked Sir Charles, if he were in earnest?

I would not be thought a rafh man, Mr Bagenhall. Sir Hargrave threatens me: I never avoid a threatener. You feem to hint, Sir, that I am not intitled to fair play, if I confent not to meet him with a murderous intention. With fuchan intention I never will meet any man, though I have as much reason to rely on the skill of my arm as on the juftice of my caufe. If foul play is hinted at, I am no more fafe from an affaffin in my bed-chamber, than in Sir Hargrave's house. Something must be done by a man who refufes a challenge, to let a challenger fee (fuch is the world, fuch is the custom) that he has better motives than fear for his refufal. I will put Sir Hargrave's honour to the fulleft teft: Tell him, Sir, that I will bear a great deal; but that I will not be infulted, were he a prince..

And you really would have me

I would, Mr Bagenhall. Sir Hargrave, I fee, will not be fatisfied, unless fomething extraordinary be done: And if I hear not from you, or from him, I will attend him by ten to-morrow morning, in an amicable manner, to breakfast at his own houfe in Cavendish-fquare.

I am in terror, Lucy, even in tranfcribing only. Mr Reeves, faid Sir Charles, you undo me, if one word of this matter efcape you, even to your wife.

Mr Reeves begged, that he might attend him to Sir Hargrave's.

By no means, Mr Reeves.

Then, Sir Charles, you apprehend danger.

I do not. Something, as I faid, must be done. This is the shortest and best method to make all

parties

parties eafy. Sir Hargrave thinks himself flighted. He may infer, if he pleases, in his own favour, that I do not despise a man in whom I can place fuch a confidence. Do you, Mr Reeves, return to the company; and let no one know the occafion of your abfence, or of mine, from it.

I have told you, my dear, what a difference there was in the countenances of both, when each feparately entered the dining-room. And couldthis great man (furely I may call him great), could he, in fuch circumstances, on his return, give joy, pleasure, entertainment, to all the company, without the least cause of fufpicion of what had paffed.

Mr Reeves, as I told you, fingled out Sir Charles in the evening to know what had paffed after he left him and Mr Bagenhall. Sir Charles acquainted him, that Mr Bagenhall had propofed to let him know that night or in the morning, how Sir Hargrave approved of his intended vifit. He has, accordingly, fignified to me already, faid Sir. Charles, that Sir Hargrave expects me.

And will you go, Sir?

Don't give yourself concern about the matter, Mr Reeves. All must end well. My intention is not to run into mischief, but to prevent it. My principles are better known abroad than they are in England; I have been challenged more than once by men who knew them, and thought to find their fafety from them. I have been obliged to take fome extraordinary fteps to fave myfelf from infult; and those steps have answered my end, in more licentious countries than this. I hope this ftep will preferve me from calls of this nature in my own country.

For God's fake, Sir Charles—

Be not uneafy on my account, Mr Reeves. Does not Sir Hargrave value himself upon his fortune ?2

C. 3.

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