my researches produc'd me no more light, than that his father had been dead some time, not so well as even with the world; and that Charles had reached his port of destination in the South-Seas, where finding the estate he was sent to recover, dwindled to a trifle, by the loss of two ships, in which the bulk of his uncle's fortune lay, he was come away with the small remainder, and might perhaps, according to the best advice, in a few months return to England, from whence he had, at the time of this my enquiry, been absent two years and seven months: a little eternity in love!
You cannot conceive with what joy I embraced the hopes thus given me of seeing the delight of my heart again; but as the term of months was assign'd it, in order to divert, and amuse my impatience for his return, after settling my affairs with much ease, and security, I set out on a journey for Lancashire, with an equipage suitable to my fortune, and with a design purely to revisit my place
