He has
been so good as to say, he would transcribe it for me. I will enclose
it, Lucy; and you will read it here:
I cannot, my lord, said Sir Charles, engage, that the lady will comply
with the proposal I shall take the liberty to make to her mother and her.
She is not more than three or four and thirty: she is handsome: she has a
fine understanding: she is brought up an economist: she is a woman of
good family: she has not, however, though born to happier prospects, a
fortune worthy of your lordship's acceptance. Whatever that is, you
will, perhaps, choose to give it to her family.
With all my heart and soul, nephew: but do you say, she is handsome? Do
you say, she is of family? And has she so many good qualities?--Ah,
nephew! She won't have me, I doubt.--And is she not too young, Sir
Charles, to think of such a poor decrepit soul as I am?
All I can say to this, my lord, is, that the proposals on your part must
be the more generous--
I will leave all those matters to you, kinsman--
This, my lord, I will take upon me to answer for, that she is a woman of
principle: she will not give your lordship her hand, if she thinks she
cannot make you a wife worthy of your utmost kindness: and now, my lord,
I will tell you who she is, that you may make what other inquiries you
think proper.
And then I named her to him, and gave him pretty near the account of the
family, and the circumstances and affairs of it, that I shall by and by
give you; though you are not quite a stranger to the unhappy case.
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