LETTER II.
Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace , Esq;
Nine, Friday Morn.
I have no opportunity to write at length, having necessary orders to give on the melancholy occasion.
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Joel, who got to me by Six in the morning, and whom I dispatched instantly back with the Letter I had ready from last night, gives me but an indifferent account of the state of your mind. I wonder not at it; but Time (and nothing else can) will make it easier to you: If (that is to say) you have compounded with your conscience; else it may be heavier every day than other.
Tourville tells me what a way you are in. I hope you will not think of coming hither. The Lady in her Will desires you may not see her. Four copies are making of it. It is a long one; for she gives her reasons for all she wills. I will write to you more particularly as soon as possibly I can.
Three Letters are just brought by a servant in livery, directed To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. I will send copies of them to you. The contents are enough to make one mad. How would this poor Lady have rejoiced to receive them! ---And yet, if she had, she would not have been enabled to say, as she nobly did (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb], That God would not let her depend for comfort upon any but Himself ---And indeed for some days past she had seemed to have got above all worldly considerations---Her fervent Love, even for her Miss Howe, as she acknowleged, having given way to supremer fervors (b) [Footnote b: 1Kb].