But though an acquaintance of no longer standing, and that commencing on the bowling-green, [uncle John is a great bowler, Belford,] (upon my decision of a point to every one’s satisfaction, which was appealed to me by all the gentlemen, and which might have been attended with bad consequences,) no two brothers have a more cordial esteem for each other.  You know, Mr. Lovelace, that there is a consent, as I may call it, in some minds, which will unite them stronger together in a few hours, than years can do with others, whom yet we see not with disgust.’

Lovel.  Very true, Captain.

Capt.  ’It was on the foot of this avowed friendship on both sides, that on Monday the 15th, as I very well remember, Mr. Harlowe invited himself home with me.  And when there, he acquainted me with the whole of the unhappy affair that had made them all so uneasy.  Till then I knew it only by report; for, intimate as we were, I forbore to speak of what was so near his heart, till he began first.  And then he told me, that he had had an application made to him, two or three days before, by a gentleman whom he named,* to induce him not only to be reconciled himself to his niece, but to forward for her a general reconciliation.

* See Vol.  IV.  Letters XXIII and XXIX.

’A like application, he told me, had been made to his sister Harlowe, by a good woman, whom every body respected; who had intimated, that his niece, if encouraged, would again put herself into the protection of her friends, and leave you:  but if not, that she must unavoidably be your’s.’

I hope, Mr. Lovelace, I make no mischief.—­You look concerned—­you sigh,
Sir.

Proceed, Captain Tomlinson.  Pray proceed.—­And I sighed still more profoundly.

Capt.  ’They all thought it extremely particular, that a lady should decline marriage with a man she had so lately gone away with.’

Pray, Captain—­pray, Mr. Tomlinson—­no more of this subject.  My beloved is an angel.  In every thing unblamable.  Whatever faults there have been, have been theirs and mine.  What you would further say, is, that the unforgiving family rejected her application.  They did.  She and I had a misunderstanding.  The falling out of lovers—­you know, Captain.  —­We have been happier ever since.

Capt.  ’Well, Sir; but Mr. John Harlowe could not but better consider the matter afterwards.  And he desired my advice how to act in it.  He told me that no father ever loved a daughter as he loved this niece of his; whom, indeed, he used to call his daughter-niece.  He said, she had really been unkindly treated by her brother and sister:  and as your alliance, Sir, was far from being a discredit to their family, he would do his endeavour to reconcile all parties, if he could be sure that ye were actually man and wife.’

Lovel.  And what, pray, Captain, was your advice?