LETTER XXIII.
Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe.
Saturday, April 15.
Tho' pretty much pressed in time, and oppressed by my Mother's watchfulness, I will write a few lines upon the new light that has broken in upon your gentleman; and send it by a particular hand.
I know not what to think of him upon it. He talks well; but judge him by Rowe's lines, he is certainly a dissembler, odious as the sin of Hypocrisy, and, as he says, that other of Ingratitude, are to him.
And pray, my dear, let me ask, Could he have triumphed, as it is said he has done, over so many of
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our Sex, had he not been egregiously guilty of both sins?
His Ingenuousness is the thing that staggers me: Yet is he cunning enough to know, that whoever accuses himself first, blunts the edge of an adversary's accusation.
He is certainly a man of sense: There is more hope of such a one, than of a fool: And there must be a beginning to a Reformation. These I will allow in his favour.
But this, that follows, I think, is the only way to judge of his specious confessions and self-accusations---Does he confess any-thing that you knew not before, or that you are not likely to find out from others?---If nothing else, what does he confess to his own disadvantage? You have heard of his Duels: You have heard of his Seductions.---All the world has. He owns therefore what it would be to no purpose to conceal; and his Ingenuousness is a Salvo---'Why, this, Madam, is no more than Mr. Lovelace himself acknowleges.'
Well, but, what is now to be done?---You must make the best of your situation: And as you say, so say I, I hope that will not be bad: For I like all that he has proposed to you of Windsor, and his Canon's house. His readiness to leave you, and go himself in quest of a lodging, likewise looks well. And I think there is nothing can be so properly done, as (whether you get to a Canon's house or not) that the Canon should join you together in wedlock as soon as possible.
I much approve, however, of all your cautions, of all your vigilance, and of every-thing you have done, but of your meeting him. Yet, in my disapprobation of that, I judge by the event only; for who would have divined, it would have concluded as it did? But he is the devil, by his own account: And had he run away with the wretched Solmes, and your more
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wretched Brother, and been himself transported for life, he should have had my free consent for all three.
What use does he make of that Joseph Leman!---His Ingenousness, I must once more say, confounds me; but if, my dear, you can forgive your Brother for the part he put that fellow upon acting, I don't know whether you ought to be angry at Lovelace: Yet I have wished fifty times, since Lovelace got you away, that you were rid of him, whether it were by a burning Fever, by Hanging, by Drowning, or by a broken Neck; provided it were before he laid you under a necessity to go into mourning for him.
I repeat my hitherto-rejected offer. May I send it safely by your old man? I have reasons for not sending it by Hickman's servant; unless I had a Bank Note. Enquiring for such may cause distrust. My Mother is so busy, so inquisitive---I don't love suspicious tempers.
And here she is continually in and out---I must break off.
Mr. Hickman begs his most respectful compliments to you, with offers of his services. I told him I would oblige him, because minds in trouble take kindly anybody's civilities: But that he was not to imagine that he particularly obliged me by this; since I should think the man or woman either blind or stupid who admired not a person of your exalted merit for your own sake, and wished not to serve you without view to other reward than the honour of serving you.
To be sure, that was his principal motive, with great daintiness he said it: But with a kiss of his hand, and a bow to my feet, he hoped, that the fine Lady's being my friend did not lessen the merit of the reverence he really had for her.
Believe me ever, what you, my dear, shall ever find me,
Your faithful and affectionate
Anna Howe.