Beauchamp, who is acquainted with the Mansfields, is intrusted by my
brother, in his absence, with the management of the law-affairs. He
hopes, he says, to give a good account of them. The base steward of the
uncle Calvert, who lived as a husband with the woman who had been forced
upon his superannuated master in a doting fit, has been brought, by the
death of one of the children born in Mr. Calvert's life-time, and by the
precarious health of the posthumous one, to make overtures of
accommodation. A new hearing of the cause between them and the Keelings,
is granted; and great things are expected from it in their favour, from
some new lights thrown in upon that suit. The Keelings are frightened
out of their wits, it seems; and are applying to Sir John Lambton, a
disinterested neighbour, to offer himself as a mediator between them.
The Mansfields will so soon be related to us, that I make no apology for
interesting you in their affairs.
Be sure you chide me for my whimsical behaviour to Lord G----. I know
you will. But don't blame my heart: my head only is wrong.
***
A little more from fresh informations of this sorry varlet Everard. I
wished him to suffer; but I wished him not to be so very great a sufferer
as it seems he is. Sharpers have bit his head off, quite close to his
shoulders: they have not left it him to carry under his arm, as the
honest patron of France did his.
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