O my dear! what would I give to obtain a revocation of my father’s malediction! a reconciliation is not to be hoped for.  You, who never loved my father, may think my solicitude on this head a weakness:  but the motive for it, sunk as my spirits at times are, is not always weak.

***

I approve of the method you prescribe for the conveyance of our letters; and have already caused the porter of the inn to be engaged to bring to me your’s, the moment that Collins arrives with them.  And the servant of the house where I am will be permitted to carry mine to Collins for you.

I have written a letter to Miss Rawlins, of Hampstead; the answer to which, just now received, has helped me to the knowledge of the vile contrivance, by which the wicked man got your letter of June the 10th.  I will give you the contents of both.

In mine to her, I briefly acquainted her ’with what had befallen me, through the vileness of the women who had passed upon me as the aunt and cousin of the wickedest of men; and own, that I never was married to him.  I desire her to make particular inquiry, and to let me know, who it was at Mrs. Moore’s that, on Sunday afternoon, June 11, while I was at church, received a letter from Miss Howe, pretending to be me, and lying on a couch:—­which letter, had it come to my hands, would have saved me from ruin.  I excuse myself (on the score of the delirium, which the horrid usage I had received threw me into, and from a confinement as barbarous as illegal) that I had not before applied to Mrs. Moore for an account of what I was indebted to her:  which account I now desired.  And, for fear of being traced by Mr. Lovelace, I directed her to superscribe her answer, To Mrs. Mary Atkins; to be left till called for, at the Belle Savage Inn, on Ludgate-hill.’

In her answer, she tells me, ’that the vile wretch prevailed upon Mrs. Bevis to personate me, [a sudden motion of his, it seems, on the appearance of your messenger,] and persuaded her to lie along a couch:  a handkerchief over her neck and face; pretending to be ill; the credulous woman drawn in by false notions of your ill offices to keep up a variance between a man and his wife—­and so taking the letter from your messenger as me.

’Miss Rawlins takes pains to excuse Mrs. Bevis’s intention.  She expresses their astonishment, and concern at what I communicate:  but is glad, however, and so they are all, that they know in time the vileness of the base man; the two widows and herself having, at his earnest invitation, designed me a visit at Mrs. Sinclair’s:  supposing all to be happy between him and me; as he assured them was the case.  Mr. Lovelace, she informs me, had handsomely satisfied Mrs. Moore.  And Miss Rawlins concludes with wishing to be favoured with the particulars of so extraordinary a story, as these particulars may be of use, to let her see what wicked creatures (women as well as men) there are in the world.’