[Page 3] THEHISTORYOFClarissa Harlowe.VOL. II. LETTER I. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Wednesday Night, March 22. Angry!---What should I be angry for?---I am mightily pleased with your freedom, as you call it. I only wonder at your patience with me; that's all. I am sorry I gave you the trouble of so long a Letter upon the occasion (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] ; notwithstanding the pleasure I received in reading it. I believe you did not intend reserves to me: For two reasons I believe you did not: First, because you say you did not: Next, because you have not as yet been able to convince yourself how it is to be with you; and persecuted as you are, how so to separate [Page 4] the...
[Page 11] LETTER II. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Tuesday Morn. 7 o'Clock. My Mother and Cousin are already gone off in our chariot and four, attended by their doughty 'Squire on horseback, and he by two of his own servants, and one of my Mother's. They both love parade when they go abroad, at least in compliment to one another; which shews, that each thinks the other does. Robin is your servant and mine, and no-body's else---And the day is all my own. I must begin with blaming you, my dear, for your resolution not to litigate for your right, if occasion were to be given you. Justice is due to ourselves, as well as to every-body else. Still more must I blame you for declaring to your Aunt and Sister,...
[Page 17] LETTER III. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday Morn. 10 o'clock (Mar. 23.) I will postpone, or perhaps pass by, several observations which I had to make on other parts of your Letters; to acquaint you, that Mr. Hickman, when in London, found an opportunity to enquire after Mr. Lovelace's town-life and conversation. At the Cocoa-tree in Pall-mall he fell in with two of his intimates, the one named Belton, the other Mowbray; both very free of speech, and probably as free in their lives: But the waiters paid them great respect, and on Mr. Hickman's enquiry after their characters, called them men of fortune and honour. They began to talk of Mr. Lovelace of their own accord; and upon...
[Page 20] LETTER IV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday Afternoon, March 23. An unexpected visitor has turned the course of my thoughts, and changed the subject I had intended to pursue. The only one for whom I would have dispensed with my resolution not to see any-body all the dedicated day: A visitor, whom, according to Mr. Hickman's report from the expectations of his Libertine friends, I supposed to be in town.---Now, my dear, have I saved myself the trouble of telling you, That it was your too-agreeable Rake. Our Sex is said to love to trade in surprizes: Yet have I, by my promptitude, surprised myself out of mine. I had intended, you must know, to run twice the length, before I had suffered you so...
LETTER V. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wedn. Night, March 22. On the report made by my Aunt and Sister of my obstinacy, my assembled relations have taken an unanimous resolution (as Betty tells me it is) against me. This resolution you will find signified to me in the inclosed Letter from my Brother, just now brought me. Be pleased to return it, when perused. I may have occasion for it, in the altercations between my Relations and me. Miss Clary,I am commanded to let you know, that my Father and Uncles having heard your Aunt Hervey's account of all that has passed between her and you: Having heard from your Sister what sort of treatment she has had from you: Having recollected all that has passed...
LETTER VI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday Morning, Mar. 23. My Letter has set them all in tumults: For, it seems, none of them went home last night; and they all were desired to be present to give their advice, if I should refuse compliance with a command thought so reasonable as it seems this is. Betty tells me, That at first my Father, in a rage, was for coming up to me himself, and for turning me out of his doors directly. Nor was he restrained, till it was hinted to him, that That was no doubt my wish, and would answer all my perverse views. But the result was, That my Brother (having really, as my Mother and Aunt insisted, taken wrong measures with me) should write again in a more moderate manner:...
[Page 34] LETTER VII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday Night, Mar. 23. I send you the boasted Confutation Letter, just now put into my hands---My Brother and Sister, my Uncle Antony and Mr. Solmes, are, I understand, exulting over the copy of it below, as an unanswerable performance. To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Once again, my inflexible Sister, I write to you. It is to let you know, that the pretty piece of Art you found out to make me the vehicle of your whining pathetics to your Father and Mother, has not had the expected effect. I do assure you, that your behaviour has not been misrepresented---Nor need it. Your Mother, who is solicitous to take all opportunities of putting the...
LETTER VIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday Morning, Six o'Clock. Mrs. Betty tells me, there is now nothing talked of but of my going to my Uncle Antony's. She has been ordered, she says, to get ready to attend me thither: And, upon my expressing my averseness to go, had the confidence to say, That having heard me often praise the romantic-ness of the place, she [Page 39] was astonished (her hands and eyes lifted up) that I should set myself against going to a house so much in my taste. I asked, If this was her own insolence, or her young mistress's observation? She half-astonished me by her answer; That it was hard she could not say a good thing, without being robbed of the merit of it. ...
LETTER IX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday Night, March 24. I have a most provoking Letter from my Sister. I might have supposed, she would resent the contempt she brought upon herself in my chamber. Her conduct surely can only be accounted for by the rage instigated by a supposed Rivalry. To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. I am to tell you, That your Mother has begged you off for the morrow: But that you have effectually done your business with her, as well as with every-body else. In your Proposals, and Letter to your Brother, you have shewn yourself so silly, and so wise; so young, and so old; so gentle, and so obstinate; so meek, and so violent; that never was there so mixed a character...
[Page 55] LETTER X. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday Midnight. I have now a calmer moment. Envy, Ambition, high and selfish Resentment, and all the violent Passions, are now, most probably, asleep all around me; and shall not my own angry ones give way to the silent hour, and subside likewise?---They have given way to it; and I have made use of the gentler space to re-peruse your last Letters. I will touch upon some passages in them. And that I may the less endanger the but just-recovered calm, I will begin with what you write about Mr. Hickman. Give me leave to say, That I am sorry you cannot yet persuade yourself to think better, that is to say, more justly, of that gentleman, than your whimsical...
LETTER XI. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Saturday, March 25. What can I advise you to do, my noble creature? Your merit is your crime. You can no more change your nature, than your persecutors can theirs. Your distress is owing to the vast disparity between you and them. What would you have of them? Do they not act in character?---And to whom? To an Alien. You are not one of them. They have two dependencies in their hope to move you to compliance---Upon their impenetrableness one [I'd give it a more proper name, if I dared]; the other, on the regard you have always had for your character [Have they not heretofore owned as much?] and upon your apprehensions from that of Lovelace, which would discredit you, should you...
[Page 67] LETTER XII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday Morning, March 26. How soothing a thing is praise from those we love!---Whether conscious or not of deserving it, it cannot but give us great delight, to see ourselves stand high in the opinion of those whose favour we are ambitious to cultivate. An ingenuous mind will make this farther use of it, that if it be sensible, that it does not already deserve the charming attributes, it will hasten (before its friend finds herself mistaken) to obtain the graces it is complimented for: And this it will do, as well in honour to itself, as to preserve its friend's opinion, and justify her judgment. May This be always my aim!---And then you will not only...
LETTER XIII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Sat. March 25. I follow my last of this date by command. I mentioned in my former, my Mother's opinion of the merit you would have, if you could oblige your friends against your own inclination. Our conference upon [Page 75] this subject was introduced by the conversation we had had with Sir Harry Downeton; and my Mother thinks it of so much importance, that she enjoins me to give you the particulars of it. I the rather comply, as I was unable in my last to tell what to advise you to; and as you will in this recital have my Mother's opinion, at least; and, perhaps, in hers, what the world's would be, were it to know only what she knows; and not so much as I know. My...
[Page 84] LETTER XIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday Afternoon. I am in great apprehensions. Yet cannot help repeating my humble thanks to your Mother and you, for your last favour. I hope her kind end is answered by the contents of my last. Yet I must not think it enough to acknowlege her goodness to me, with a pensil only, on the Cover of a Letter sealed up. A few lines give me leave to write with regard to my anonymous Letter to Lady Drayton. If I did not at that time tell you, as I believe I did, that my excellent Mrs. Norton gave me her assistance in that Letter; I now acknowlege that she did. Pray let your Mother know this, for two reasons: One, that I may not be thought to arrogate to myself...
LETTER XV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Monday Morning, March 27. This morning early my Uncle Harlowe came hither. He sent up the inclosed very tender Letter. It has made me wish I could oblige him. You will see how Mr. Solmes's ill qualities are glossed over in it. What blemishes does affection hide!---But perhaps they may say to me, What faults does antipathy bring to light! Be pleased to send me back this Letter of my Uncle by the first return. Sunday Night, or rather Monday Morning. I must answer you, tho' against my own resolution. Every-body loves you; and you know they do. The very ground you walk upon is dear to most of us. But how can we resolve to see you? There is no standing against your...
LETTER XVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Monday Afternoon, March 27. I have deposited my Narrative down to this day noon; but I hope soon to follow it with another Letter, that I may keep you as little a while as possible [Page 96] in that suspense which I am so much affected by at this moment: For my heart is disturbed at every foot I hear stir; and at every door below that I hear open or shut. They have been all assembled some time, and are in close debate I believe: But can there be room for long debate upon a proposal, which, if accepted, will so effectually answer all their views?---Can they insist a moment longer upon my having Mr. Solmes, when they see what sacrifices I am ready to make, to be freed from his...
[Page 104] LETTER XVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Tuesday Morning, 7 o'Clock. My Uncle has vouchsafed to answer me. These that follow are the contents of his Letter; but just now brought me, altho' written last night---Late, I suppose. Monday Night. Miss Clary, Since you are grown such a bold challenger, and teach us all our duty, tho' you will not practise your own, I must answer you. No-body wants your Estate from you. Are you, who refuse every-body's advice, to prescribe a Husband to your Sister? Your Letter to Mr. Solmes is inexcusable. I blamed you for it before. Your Parents will be obeyed. It is fit they should. Your Mother has nevertheless prevailed to have your going...
LETTER XVIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Tuesday, Three o'Clock, March 28. I have mentioned several times the pertness of Mrs. Betty to me; and now, having a little time [Page 110] upon my hands, I will give you a short Dialogue that passed just now between us. It may, perhaps, be a little relief to you from the dull subjects with which I am perpetually teazing you. As she attended me at dinner, she took notice, That Nature is satisfied with a very little nourishment: And thus she complimentally proved it:---For, Miss, said she, you eat nothing; yet never looked more charmingly in your life. As to the former part of your speech, Betty, said I, you observe well; and I have often thought, when I have...
LETTER XIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wednesday Morning, Nine o'clock. I am just returned from my morning walk, and already have received a Letter from Mr. Lovelace in answer to mine deposited last night. He must have had pen, ink, and paper, with him; for it was written in the coppice; with this circumstance: On one knee, kneeling with the other. Not from reverence to the written to, however, as you'll find! Well are we instructed early to keep these men at distance. An undesigning open heart, where it is loth to disoblige, is easily drawn in, I see, to oblige more than ever it designed. It is too apt to govern itself by what a bold spirit is encouraged to expect of it. It is very difficult for a good-natured...
LETTER XX. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday Morning, Day-break, March 30. An accident, and not remissness, has occasioned my silence. My Mother was sent for on Sunday night by her cousin Larkin, whom I mentioned in one of my former, and who was extremely earnest to see her. [Page 127] This poor woman was always afraid of death, and was one of those weak persons who imagine that the making of their Will must be an undoubted forerunner of it. She had always said, when urged to the necessary work, That whenever she made it, she should not live long after; and, one would think, imagined she was under an obligation to prove her words: For, tho' she had been long bed-rid, and was, in a manner, worn...
LETTER XXI. Mr. Hickman, To Mrs. Howe. Wednesday, March 29. ·Madam, ·It is with infinite regret that I think myself obliged, by pen and ink, to repeat my apprehensions, that it is impossible for me ever to obtain a share in the affections of your beloved Daughter. O that it were not too evident to every one, as well as to myself, even to our very servants, that my Love for her, and my Assiduities, expose me rather to her Scorn [Forgive me, Madam, the hard word!] than to the treatment due to a man whose proposals have met with your approbation, and who loves her above all the women in the world! ·Well might the merit of my passion be doubted, if, like Mr. Solmes to the truly admirable Miss Clarissa Harlowe, I could...
[Page 135] LETTER XXII. ·Mrs. Howe, To Charles Hickman, Esq; ·Thursday, March 30. ·I cannot but say, Mr. Hickman, but you have cause to be dissatisfied---to be out of humour---to be displeased---with Nancy---But, upon my word; But indeed---What shall I say?---Yet this I will say, that you good young gentlemen know nothing at all of our Sex. Shall I tell you---But why should I? And yet I will say, That if Nancy did not think well of you in the main, she is too generous to treat you so freely as she does.---Don't you think she has courage enough to tell me, She would not see you, and to refuse at any time seeing you, as she knows on what account you come, if she had not something in her head favourable to you?---Fie! that I am...
[Page 138] LETTER XXIII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday Morning. I will now take some notice of your last favour. But being so far behind-hand with you, must be brief. In the first place, as to your reproofs, thus shall I discharge myself of that part of my subject.---Is it likely, think you, that I should avoid deserving them now-and-then, occasionally, when I admire the manner in which you give me your rebukes, and love you the better for them? And when you are so well entitled to give them? For what faults can you possibly have, unless your relations are so kind as to find you a few to keep their many in countenance?---But they are as kind to me in This, as to you; for I may venture to affirm, That...
LETTER XXIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, March 31. You have very kindly accounted for your silence. People in misfortune are always in doubt. They are too apt to turn even unavoidable accidents into slights and neglects; especially in those whose favourable opinion they wish to preserve. I am sure I ought evermore to exempt my Anna Howe from the supposed possibility of her becoming one of those who bask only in the Sunshine of a friend: But nevertheless her friendship is too precious to me, not to doubt my own merits on the one hand, and not to be anxious for the preservation of it, on the other. You so generously give me liberty to chide you, that I am afraid of taking it, because I could sooner...
LETTER XXV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday Night, March 30. The fruits of my enquiry after your abominable wretch's behaviour and baseness at the paltry Alehouse, which he calls an Inn, prepare to hear. Wrens and Sparrows are not too ignoble a quarry [Page 154] for this villainous Gos-hawk!---His assiduities; his watchings; his nightly risques; the inclement weather he journeys in; must not be all placed to your account. He has opportunities of making every-thing light to him of that sort. A sweet pretty girl, I am told---Innocent till he went thither---Now! (Ah! poor girl!) who knows what? But just turned of Seventeen!---His friend and brother Rake (a man of humour and intrigue) as I am told, to...
[Page 156] LETTER XXVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, Three o'Clock. You incense, alarm, and terrify me, at the same time---Hasten, my dearest friend, hasten to me, what further intelligence you can gather about this vilest of men. But never talk of innocence, of simplicity, and this unhappy girl, together! Must she not know, that such a man as That, dignified in his very aspect; and no disguise able to conceal his being of condition; must mean too much, when he places her at the upper end of his table, and calls her by such tender names? Would a girl, modest as simple, above Seventeen, be set a singing at the pleasure of such a man as That? A stranger, and professedly in disguise!---Would her...
LETTER XXVII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Friday Noon, March 31. Justice obliges me to forward This after my last on the wings of the wind, as I may say. I really believe the man is innocent. Of this one accusation, I think, he must be acquitted; and I am sorry I was so forward in dispatching away my intelligence by halves. [Page 159] I have seen the girl. She is really a very pretty, a very neat, and, what is still a greater beauty, a very innocent young creature. He who could have ruined such an undesigning home-bred, must have been indeed infernally wicked. Her Father is an honest simple man; entirely satisfied with his child, and with her new acquaintance. I am almost afraid for your heart, when I...
LETTER XXVIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Saturday, April 1. Hasty censurers do indeed subject themselves to the charge of variableness and inconsistency in judgment: And so they ought; for, if you, even you, my dear, were so loth to own a mistake, as in the instance before us you pretend you were, I believe I should not have loved you so well as I really do love you. Nor could you, in that case, have so frankly thrown the reflection I hint at upon yourself, had not your mind been one of the most ingenuous that ever woman boasted. Mr. Lovelace has faults enow to deserve very severe [Page 161] censure, altho' he be not guilty of this. If I were upon such terms with him as he would wish me to be, I should give him a...
LETTER XXIX. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Sunday, April 2. I ought yesterday to have acknowleged the receipt of your Parcel: Robin tells me, that the Joseph Leman whom you mention as the traitor, saw him. He was in the poultry-yard, and spoke to Robin over the bank which divides that from the Green-Lane. 'What brings you hither, Mr. Robert?---But I can tell. Hie away, as fast as you can.' No doubt but their dependence upon this fellow's [Page 168] vigilance, and upon Betty's, leaves you more at liberty in your Airings, than you would otherwise be. But you are the only person I ever heard of, who in such circumstances had not some faithful servant to trust little offices to. A poet, my dear, would not have gone to work...
LETTER XXX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday Night, April 2. I have many new particulars to acquaint you with that shew a great change in the behaviour of my friends to me. I did not think we had so much Art among us, as I find we have. I will give these particulars to you as they offered. All the family was at church in the morning. They brought good Dr. Lewen with them, in pursuance of a previous invitation. And the doctor sent up to desire my permission to attend me in my own apartment. You may believe it was easily granted. So the doctor came up. We had a conversation of near an hour before dinner: But, to my surprize, he waved every-thing that would have led to the subject I supposed he wanted to...
LETTER XXXI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. I am glad my Papers are safe in your hands. I will make it my endeavour to deserve your good opinion, [Page 179] that I may not at once disgrace your judgment, and my own heart. I have another Letter from Mr. Lovelace. He is extremely apprehensive of the meeting I am to have with Mr. Solmes to-morrow. He says, 'That the airs that wretch gives himself on the occasion, add to his concern; and it is with infinite difficulty that he prevails upon himself not to make him a visit to let him know what he may expect, if compulsion be used towards me in his favour. He assures me, That Solmes has actually talked with tradesmen of new equipages, and names the people in town with whom he...
[Page 181] LETTER XXXII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Tuesday Morning, Six o'clock. The day is come!---I wish it were happily over. I have had a wretched night. Hardly a wink have I slept, ruminating upon the approaching Interview. The very distance of time to which they consented, has added solemnity to the meeting, which otherwise it would not have had. A thoughtful mind is not a blessing to be coveted, unless it had such a happy vivacity with it as yours: A vivacity, which enables a person to enjoy the present, without being over-anxious about the future. Tuesday, Eleven o'clock. I have had a visit from my Aunt Hervey. Betty, in her alarming way, told me, I should have a Lady to breakfast with me, whom...
LETTER XXXIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Tuesday Evening; and continued thro' the Night. Well, my dear, I am alive, and here! But how long I shall be either here, or alive, I cannot say. I have a vast deal to write; and perhaps shall have little time for it. Nevertheless, I must tell you how the saucy Betty again discomposed me, [Page 187] when she came up with this Solmes's message; altho', as you will remember from my last, I was in a way before that wanted no additional surprizes. Miss! Miss! Miss! cried she, as fast as she could speak, with her arms spread abroad, and all her fingers distended, and held up, will you be pleased to walk down into your own parlour?---There is every-body, I will assure you, in...
LETTER XXXIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wednesday, Eleven o'Clock, April 5. I must write as I have opportunity; making use of my concealed stores: For my pens and ink (all of each that they could find) are taken from me; as I shall tell you more particularly by-and-by. About an hour ago, I deposited my long Letter to you; as also, in the usual place, a billet to Mr. Lovelace, lest his impatience should put him upon some rashness; signifying, in four lines, 'That the Interview was over; and that I hoped my steady refusal of Mr. Solmes would discourage any further applications to me in his favour.' Altho' I was unable (through the fatigue I had undergone, and by reason of sitting up all night, to write to...
LETTER XXXV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wednesday, Four o'Clock in the Afternoon. I am just returned from depositing the Letter I so lately finished, and such of Mr. Lovelace's Letters as I had not sent you. My long Letter I found remaining there.---So you will have both together. I am concerned, methinks, it is not with you.---But your servant cannot always be at leisure. However, I will deposit as fast as I write. I must keep nothing by me now; and when I write, lock myself in, that I may not be surprised now they think I have no pen and ink. I found in the usual place another Letter from this diligent man: And by its contents, a confirmation that nothing passes in this house but he knows it; and that almost...
LETTER XXXVI. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday Morning (April 9.). I have your three Letters. Never was there a creature more impatient on the most interesting uncertainty that I was, to know the event of the Interview between you and Solmes. It behoves me to account to my dear friend, in her present unhappy situation, for every-thing that may have the least appearance of negligence or remissness on my part. I sent Robin in the morning early, in hopes of a deposit. He loitered about the place till near Ten to no purpose; and then came away; my Mother having given him a Letter to carry to Mr. Hunt's, which he was to deliver before Three, when only, in the day-time, that gentleman is at [Page 239] home; and to...
LETTER XXXVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday, April 6. I thank you, my dearest friend, for the pains you have taken in accounting so affectionately for my papers not being taken away yesterday; and for the kind protection you would have procured for me, if you could. This kind protection was what I wished for: But my wishes, raised at first by your Love, were rather governed by my despair of other refuge [having before cast about, and not being able to determine, what I ought to do, and what I could do, in a situation so unhappy] than by a reasonable hope: For why indeed should any-body embroil themselves for others, when they can avoid it? All my consolation is, as I have frequently said,...
LETTER XXXVIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday Night. The alarming hurry I mentioned under my date of last night, and Betty's saucy dark hints, come out to be owing to what I guessed they were; that is to say, to the private intimation Mr. Lovelace contrived our family should have of his insolent resolution [Page 253] [insolent I must call it] to prevent my being carried to my Uncle's. I saw at the time that it was as wrong with respect to answering his own view, as it was insolent: For could he think, as Betty (I suppose from her betters) justly observed, That Parents would be insulted out of their right to the disposal of their own child, by a violent man, whom they hate; and who could have no...
[Page 264] LETTER XXXIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday Morning, Seven o'Clock (April 7.) My Aunt Hervey, who is a very early riser, was walking in the garden (Betty attending her, as I saw from my window this morning) when I arose; for after such a train of fatigue and restless nights, I had unhappily overslept myself: So all I durst venture upon, was, to step down to my poultry-yard, and deposit mine of yesterday, and last night. And I am just come up; for she is still in the garden. This prevents me from going to resume my Letter, as I think still to do; and hope it will not be too late. I said, I had unhappily overslept myself. I went to bed at about half an hour after Two. I told the quarters...
[Page 269] LETTER XL. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, One o'Clock. I have a Letter from Mr. Lovelace, full of transports, vows, and promises. I will send it to you inclosed. You'll see how 'he engages in it for Lady Betty's protection, and for Miss Charlotte Montague's accompanying me. I have nothing to do, but to persevere, he says, and prepare to receive the personal congratulations of his whole family.' But you'll see, how he presumes upon my being his, as the consequence of throwing myself into that Lady's protection. 'The chariot-and-six is to be ready at the place he mentions. You'll see as to the slur upon my reputation about which I am so apprehensive, how boldly he argues.' Generously enough...
LETTER XLI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sat. Morn. 8 o'Clock (April 8.). Whether you will blame me or not, I cannot tell, but I have deposited a Letter confirming my resolution to leave this house on Monday next, within the hours mentioned in my former, if possible. I have not kept a copy of it. But this is the substance: I tell him, 'That I have no way to avoid the determined resolution of my friends in behalf of Mr. Solmes, but by abandoning this house by his assistance.' I have not pretended to make a merit with him on this score; for I plainly tell him, 'That could I, without an unpardonable sin, die when I would, I would sooner make death my choice, than take a step, which all the world, if not my...
[Page 284] LETTER XLII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Sat. Afternoon. By your last date of Ten o'clock in your Letter of this day, you could not long have deposited it before Robin took it. He rode hard, and brought it to me just as I had risen from table. You may justly blame me for sending my messenger empty-handed, your situation considered; and yet that very situation (so critical!) is partly the reason for it: For indeed I knew not what to write, fit to send you. I had been enquiring privately, how to procure you a conveyance from Harlowe-Place, and yet not appear in it; knowing, that to oblige in the fact, and to disoblige in the manner, is but obliging by halves: My Mother being...
LETTER XLIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. [The preceding Letter not received.] Saturday Afternoon. Already have I an ecstatic Answer, as I may call it, to my Letter. 'He promises compliance with my will in every article: Approves of all I propose; particularly of the private lodging: And thinks it a happy expedient to obviate the censures of the Busy and the Unreflecting: And yet he hopes, that the putting myself into the protection of either of his Aunts (treated as I am treated) would be far from being looked upon by any-body in a disreputable light. But every-thing I enjoin or resolve upon must, he says, be right, not only with respect to my present but future Reputation; with regard to which, he...
LETTER XLIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. [In answer to Letter xlii.] Sunday Morning, April 9. Do not think, my beloved friend, altho' you have given me in yours of yesterday a severer instance of what, nevertheless, I must call your impartial [Page 294] Love, than ever yet I received from you, that I will be displeased with you for it. That would be to put myself into the inconvenient situation of Royalty: That is to say, Out of the way of ever being told of my faults; of ever mending them; and In the way of making the sincerest and warmest friendship useless to me. And then how brightly, how nobly glows in your bosom the sacred flame of friendship; since it can make you ready to impute to the unhappy...
LETTER XLV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday Morning (April 9.). Nobody it seems will go to church this day. No blessing to be expected perhaps upon views so worldly, and in some so cruel. They have a mistrust that I have some device in my head. Betty has been looking among my cloaths. I found her, on coming up from depositing my Letter to Lovelace (for I have written!) peering among them; for I had left the key in the lock. She coloured, and was confounded to be caught. But I only said, I should be accustomed to any sort of treatment in time. If she had her orders---those were enough for her. She owned, in her confusion, that a motion had been made to abridge me of my Airings; and the report she should...
LETTER XLVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Ivy Summer-house, Eleven o'Clock. He has not yet got my Letter: And while I was contriving here how to send my officious gaoleress from me, that I might have time for the intended Interview, and had hit upon an expedient, which I believe would have done, came my Aunt, and furnished me with a much better. She saw my little table covered, preparative to my solitary dinner; and hoped, she told me, that this would be the last day that my friends would be deprived of my company at table. You may believe, my dear, that the thoughts of meeting Mr. Lovelace, for fear of being discovered, together with the contents of my Cousin Dolly's Letter, gave me great and visible emotions. She...
LETTER XLVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. St. Alban's, Tuesday Morn. past One. O my dearest friend! After what I had resolved upon, as by my former, what shall I write? What can I? With what consciousness, even by Letter, do I approach you?---You will soon hear (if already you have not heard from the mouth of common fame) that your Clarissa Harlowe is gone off with a man! I am busying myself to give you the particulars at large. The whole twenty-four hours of each day (to begin the moment I can fix) shall be employed in it till it is finished: Every one of the hours, I mean, that will be spared me by this interrupting man, to whom I have made myself so foolishly accountable for too many of them. Rest is...
LETTER XLVIII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Tuesday, Nine o'Clock. I write, because you enjoin me to do so. Love you still!---How can I help it, if I would? You may believe how I stand aghast, your Letter communicating the first news---Good God of Heaven and Earth!---But what shall I say?---I am all impatience for particulars. Lord have mercy upon me!---But can it be? My Mother will indeed be astonished!---How can I tell it her!---It was but last night (upon some jealousies put into her head by your foolish Uncle) that I assured her, and this upon the strength of your own assurances, that neither man nor devil would be able to induce you to take a step that was in the least derogatory to the most...
LETTER XLIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Tuesday Night. I think myself obliged to thank you, my dear Miss Howe, for your condescension, in taking notice of a creature who has occasioned you so much scandal. I am grieved on this account, as much, I verily think, as for the evil itself. Tell me---But yet I am afraid to know---what your Mother said. I long, and yet I dread, to be told, what the young Ladies my companions, now never more perhaps to be so, say of me. They cannot, however, say worse of me than I will of myself. Self-accusation shall flow in every line of my narrative where I think I am justly censurable. If any-thing can arise from the account I am going to give you, for extenuation of my...
LETTER L. Mr. Lovelace, To Joseph Leman. Sat. April 8. Honest Joseph, At length your beloved young Lady has consented to free herself from the cruel treatment she has so long borne. She is to meet me without the garden-door at about Four o'clock on Monday afternoon. I told you she had promised to do so. She has confirmed her promise. Thank Heaven, she has confirmed her promise. I shall have a chariot-and-six ready in the by-road fronting the private path to Harlowe-paddock; and several of my friends and servants not far off, armed to protect her, if there be occasion: But every one charged to avoid mischief. That, you know, has always been my principal care. All my fear is, that when she comes to the point,...
LETTER LI. To Robert Lovelace, Esquier, His Honner. Sunday Morning, April 9. Honnered Sir, I must confesse I am infinnitely oblidged to your Honner's bounty. But this last command!---It seems so intricket! Lord be merciful to me, how have I been led from littel stepps to grate stepps!---And if I should be found out!---But your Honner says, you will take me into your Honner's sarvise, and proteckt me, if as I should at any time be found out; and raise my wages besides; or set me upp in a good Inne; which is my ambishion. And you will be honnerable and kind to my dearest young Lady, God love her.---But who can be unkind to she? I will do the best I am able, since your Honner will be apt to lose her, as your Honner says,...