“Earl Harwood has been to Deane lately, as I think Mary wrote us word; & his family then told him that they would receive his wife, if she continued to behave well for another Year.—He was very grateful, as well he might; their behavior throughout the whole affair has been particularly kind.—Earl & his wife live in the most private manner imaginable at Portsmouth, without keeping a servant of any kind.—What a prodigious innate love of virtue she must have, to marry under such circumstances!”
In the (Letters) index it says Earl Harwood married Sara Scott who had a “doubtful reputation.” Anyone aware of what made her doubtful, this almost sounds like something that would happen in one of JA’s novels. Is there a little mischief in that last line?