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LETTER XXXVI.
Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Mrs. Hodges.
Enfield, June 29.
Mrs. Hodges,
I am under a kind of necessity to write to you, having no one among my relations to whom I dare write, or hope a line from if I did. It is but to answer a question. It is this:
Whether you know such a Man as Capt. Tomlinson? And, if you do, whether he be very intimate with my Uncle Harlowe?
I will describe his person, lest, possibly, he should go by another name among you; altho' I know not why he should.
'He is a thin, tallish man, a little pock-fretten; of a sallowish complexion. Fifty years of age, or more. Of a good aspect when he looks up. He seems to be a serious man, and one who knows the world. He stoops a little in the shoulders. Is of Berkshire. His Wife of Oxfordshire; and has several Children. He removed lately into your parts from Northamptonshire.'
I must desire you, Mrs. Hodges, that you will not let my Uncle, nor any of my relations, know that I write to you.
You used to say, that you would be glad to have it in your power to serve me. That, indeed, was in my prosperity. But I dare say, you will not refuse me in a particular that will oblige me, without hurting yourself.
I understand, that my Father, Mother, and Sister, and, I presume, my Brother, and my Uncle Antony, are to be at my Uncle Harlowe's this day. God preserve them all, and may they rejoice in many happy Birth-days! You will write six words to me concerning their healths.
Direct, for a particular reason, To Mrs. Dorothy
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Salcomb, To be left, till call'd for, at the Four Swans Inn, Bishopsgate-street.
You know my hand-writing well enough, were not the contents of the Letter sufficient to excuse my name, or any other subscription, than that of
Your Friend.