I thought I should have fainted upon the surpris-
ing communication.  But rage taking place, it blew
away the sudden illness.  I besought Miss Lloyd
to re-enjoin secrecy to every one.  I told her that
>>> I would not for the world that my mother, or any
of your family, should know it.  And I instantly
caused a trusty friend to make what inquiries he
could about Tomlinson.

>>> I had thoughts to have done it before I had this
     intelligence:  but not imagining it to be needful, and
     little thinking that you could be in such a house, and
     as you were pleased with your changed prospects, I
>>> forbore.  And the rather forbore, as the matter is
     so laid, that Mrs. Hodges is supposed to know
     nothing of the projected treaty of accommodation;
     but, on the contrary, that it was designed to be a
     secret to her, and to every body but immediate
     parties; and it was Mrs. Hodges that I had pro-
     posed to sound by a second hand.

>>> Now, my dear, it is certain, without applying to
     that too-much-favoured housekeeper, that there is
     not such a man within ten miles of your uncle.—­
     Very true!—­One Tomkins there is, about four miles
     off; but he is a day-labourer:  and one Thompson,
     about five miles distant the other way; but he is a
     parish schoolmaster, poor, and about seventy.

>>> A man, thought but of L.800 a year, cannot come
     from one country to settle in another, but every
     body in both must know it, and talk of it.

>>> Mrs. Hodges may yet be sounded at a distance,
     if you will.  Your uncle is an old man.  Old men
     imagine themselves under obligation to their para-
>>> mours, if younger than themselves, and seldom
     keep any thing from their knowledge.  But if we
     suppose him to make secret of this designed treaty,
     it is impossible, before that treaty was thought of,
     but she must have seen him, at least have heard
     your uncle speak praisefully of a man he is said to
     be so intimate with, let him have been ever so little
     a while in those parts.

>>> Yet, methinks, the story is so plausible—­Tom-
     linson, as you describe him, is so good a man, and
     so much of a gentleman; the end to be answered
>>> by his being an impostor, so much more than neces-
     sary if Lovelace has villany in his head; and as
>>> you are in such a house—­your wretch’s behaviour
     to him was so petulant and lordly; and Tomlin-
     son’s answer so full of spirit and circumstance;
>>> and then what he communicated to you of Mr.
     Hickman’s application to your uncle, and of Mrs.
     Norton’s to your mother, [some of which particu-
>>> lars, I am satisfied, his vile agent, Joseph Leman,