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+Project Gutenberg's Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9), by Samuel Richardson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)
+
+Author: Samuel Richardson
+
+Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9296]
+Posting Date: August 1, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARISSA, VOLUME 1 (OF 9) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julie C. Sparks
+
+
+
+
+CLARISSA HARLOWE
+
+or the
+
+HISTORY OF A YOUNG LADY
+
+Nine Volumes
+
+Volume I.
+
+
+     Comprehending
+     The most Important Concerns of Private Life.
+     And particularly shewing,
+     The Distresses that may attend the Misconduct
+     Both of Parents and Children,
+     In Relation to Marriage.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following History is given in a series of letters, written
+Principally in a double yet separate correspondence;
+
+Between two young ladies of virtue and honor, bearing an inviolable
+friendship for each other, and writing not merely for amusement, but
+upon the most interesting subjects; in which every private family, more
+or less, may find itself concerned; and,
+
+Between two gentlemen of free lives; one of them glorying in his
+talents for stratagem and invention, and communicating to the other, in
+confidence, all the secret purposes of an intriguing head and resolute
+heart.
+
+But here it will be proper to observe, for the sake of such as may
+apprehend hurt to the morals of youth, from the more freely-written
+letters, that the gentlemen, though professed libertines as to the
+female sex, and making it one of their wicked maxims, to keep no faith
+with any of the individuals of it, who are thrown into their power,
+are not, however, either infidels or scoffers; nor yet such as think
+themselves freed from the observance of those other moral duties which
+bind man to man.
+
+On the contrary, it will be found, in the progress of the work, that
+they very often make such reflections upon each other, and each upon
+himself and his own actions, as reasonable beings must make, who
+disbelieve not a future state of rewards and punishments, and who one
+day propose to reform--one of them actually reforming, and by that means
+giving an opportunity to censure the freedoms which fall from the gayer
+pen and lighter heart of the other.
+
+And yet that other, although in unbosoming himself to a select friend,
+he discovers wickedness enough to entitle him to general detestation,
+preserves a decency, as well in his images as in his language, which
+is not always to be found in the works of some of the most celebrated
+modern writers, whose subjects and characters have less warranted the
+liberties they have taken.
+
+In the letters of the two young ladies, it is presumed, will be
+found not only the highest exercise of a reasonable and practicable
+friendship, between minds endowed with the noblest principles of
+virtue and religion, but occasionally interspersed, such delicacy of
+sentiments, particularly with regard to the other sex; such instances
+of impartiality, each freely, as a fundamental principle of their
+friendship, blaming, praising, and setting right the other, as are
+strongly to be recommended to the observation of the younger part (more
+specially) of female readers.
+
+The principle of these two young ladies is proposed as an exemplar to
+her sex. Nor is it any objection to her being so, that she is not in
+all respects a perfect character. It was not only natural, but it was
+necessary, that she should have some faults, were it only to show the
+reader how laudably she could mistrust and blame herself, and carry to
+her own heart, divested of self-partiality, the censure which arose from
+her own convictions, and that even to the acquittal of those, because
+revered characters, whom no one else would acquit, and to whose much
+greater faults her errors were owing, and not to a weak or reproachable
+heart. As far as it is consistent with human frailty, and as far as she
+could be perfect, considering the people she had to deal with, and those
+with whom she was inseparably connected, she is perfect. To have been
+impeccable, must have left nothing for the Divine Grace and a purified
+state to do, and carried our idea of her from woman to angel. As such is
+she often esteemed by the man whose heart was so corrupt that he could
+hardly believe human nature capable of the purity, which, on every trial
+or temptation, shone out in her's [sic].
+
+Besides the four principal person, several others are introduced, whose
+letters are characteristic: and it is presumed that there will be found
+in some of them, but more especially in those of the chief character
+among the men, and the second character among the women, such strokes of
+gayety, fancy, and humour, as will entertain and divert, and at the same
+time both warn and instruct.
+
+All the letters are written while the hearts of the writers must be
+supposed to be wholly engaged in their subjects (the events at the time
+generally dubious): so that they abound not only in critical situations,
+but with what may be called instantaneous descriptions and reflections
+(proper to be brought home to the breast of the youthful reader;) as
+also with affecting conversations; many of them written in the dialogue
+or dramatic way.
+
+'Much more lively and affecting,' says one of the principal character,
+'must be the style of those who write in the height of a present
+distress; the mind tortured by the pangs of uncertainty (the events then
+hidden in the womb of fate;) than the dry, narrative, unanimated style
+of a person relating difficulties and danger surmounted, can be; the
+relater perfectly at ease; and if himself unmoved by his own story, not
+likely greatly to affect the reader.'
+
+What will be found to be more particularly aimed at in the following
+work is--to warn the inconsiderate and thoughtless of the one sex,
+against the base arts and designs of specious contrivers of the
+other--to caution parents against the undue exercise of their natural
+authority over their children in the great article of marriage--to warn
+children against preferring a man of pleasure to a man of probity upon
+that dangerous but too-commonly-received notion, that a reformed rake
+makes the best husband--but above all, to investigate the highest and
+most important doctrines not only of morality, but of Christianity, by
+showing them thrown into action in the conduct of the worthy characters;
+while the unworthy, who set those doctrines at defiance, are condignly,
+and, as may be said, consequentially punished.
+
+From what has been said, considerate readers will not enter upon the
+perusal of the piece before them as if it were designed only to divert
+and amuse. It will probably be thought tedious to all such as dip into
+it, expecting a light novel, or transitory romance; and look upon story
+in it (interesting as that is generally allowed to be) as its sole end,
+rather than as a vehicle to the instruction.
+
+Different persons, as might be expected, have been of different
+opinions, in relation to the conduct of the Heroine in particular
+situations; and several worthy persons have objected to the general
+catastrophe, and other parts of the history. Whatever is thought
+material of these shall be taken notice of by way of Postscript, at the
+conclusion of the History; for this work being addressed to the public
+as a history of life and manners, those parts of it which are
+proposed to carry with them the force of an example, ought to be as
+unobjectionable as is consistent with the design of the whole, and with
+human nature.
+
+
+
+
+NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS
+
+
+  MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, a young lady of great beauty and merit.
+  ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ. her admirer.
+  JAMES HARLOWE, ESQ. father of Clarissa.
+  MRS. HARLOWE, his lady.
+  JAMES HARLOWE, their only son.
+  ARABELLA, their elder daughter.
+  JOHN HARLOWE, ESQ. elder brother of James Harlowe, sen.
+  ANTONY HARLOWE, third brother.
+  ROGER SOLMES, ESQ. an admirer of Clarissa, favoured by her friends.
+  MRS. HERVEY, half-sister of Mrs. Harlowe.
+  MISS DOLLY HERVEY, her daughter.
+  MRS. JUDITH NORTON, a woman of great piety and discretion, who had a
+  principal share in the education of Clarissa.
+  COL. WM. MORDEN, a near relation of the Harlowes.
+  MISS HOWE, the most intimate friend, companion, and correspondent of
+  Clarissa.
+  MRS. HOWE, her mother.
+  CHARLES HICKMAN, ESQ. an admirer of Miss Howe.
+  LORD M., uncle to Mr. Lovelace.
+  LADY SARAH SADLEIR, LADY BETTY LAWRANCE, half-sisters of Lord M.
+  MISS CHARLOTTE MONTAGUE, MISS PATTY MONTAGUE, nieces of the same
+  nobleman.
+  DR. LEWEN, a worthy divine.
+  MR. ELIAS BRAND, a pedantic young clergyman.
+  DR. H. a humane physician.
+  MR. GODDARD, an honest and skilful apothecary.
+  JOHN BELFORD, ESQ. Mr. Lovelace's principal intimate and confidant.
+  RICHARD MOWBRAY, THOMAS DOLEMAN, JAMES TOURVILLE, THOMAS BELTON,
+  ESQRS. libertine friends of Mr. Lovelace.
+  MRS. MOORE, a widow, keeping a lodging-house at Hampstead.
+  MISS RAWLINS, a notable young gentlewoman there.
+  MRS. BEVIS, a lively young widow of the same place.
+  MRS. SINCLAIR, the pretended name of a private brothel-keeper in
+  London.
+  CAPTAIN TOMLINSON, the assumed name of a vile pander to the
+  debaucheries of Mr. Lovelace.
+  SALLY MARTIN, POLLY HORTON, assistants of, and partners with, the
+  infamous Sinclair.
+  DORCAS WYKES, an artful servant at the vile house.
+
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS OF VOLUME I
+
+
+LETTER I. Miss Howe to Miss Clarissa Harlowe.--Desires from her the
+particulars of the rencounter between Mr. Lovelace and her brother; and
+of the usage she receives upon it: also the whole of her story from the
+time Lovelace was introduced as a suitor to her sister Arabella. Admires
+her great qualities, and glories in the friendship between them.
+
+LETTER II. III. IV. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Gives the requested
+particulars. Together with the grounds of her brother's and sister's
+ill-will to her; and of the animosity between her brother and
+Lovelace.--Her mother connives at the private correspondence between
+her and Lovelace, for the sake of preventing greater evils. Character
+of Lovelace, from an enemy.--Copy of the preamble to her grandfather's
+will.
+
+LETTER V. From the same.--Her father, mother, brother, briefly
+characterized. Her brother's consequence in the family. Wishes Miss Howe
+had encouraged her brother's address. Endeavors to find excuses for her
+father's ill temper, and for her mother's passiveness.
+
+LETTER VI. From the same.--Mr. Symmes, Mr. Mullins, Mr. Wyerley, in
+return, proposed to her, in malice to Lovelace; and, on their being
+rejected, Mr. Solmes. Leave given her to visit Miss Howe for a few days.
+Her brother's insolent behaviour upon it.
+
+LETTER VII. From the same.--The harsh reception she meets with on her
+return from Miss Howe. Solmes's first visit.
+
+LETTER VIII. From the same.--All her family determined in Solmes's
+favour. Her aversion to him. She rejects him, and is forbid going to
+church, visiting, receiving visits, or writing to any body out of the
+house.
+
+LETTER IX. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Her expedient to carry on a private
+correspondence with Miss Howe. Regrets the necessity she is laid under
+to take such a clandestine step.
+
+LETTER X. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Inveighs against the Harlowe family
+for proposing such a man as Solmes. Characterizes them. Is jealous
+of Antony Harlowe's visits to her mother. Rallies her friend on her
+supposed regard to Lovelace.
+
+LETTER XI. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Is nettled and alarmed at her
+raillery. Her reasons for not giving way to a passion for Lovelace.
+
+LETTER XII. Miss Howe in reply.--Continues her raillery. Gives
+Lovelace's character from Mrs. Fortescue.
+
+LETTER XIII. XIV. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--The views of her family in
+favouring the address of Solmes. Her brother's and sister's triumph upon
+the difficulties into which they have plunged her.
+
+LETTER XV. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--She accounts for Arabella's malice.
+Blames her for having given up the power over the estate left her by her
+grandfather.
+
+LETTER XVI. XVII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Offends her father by her
+behaviour to Solmes in his presence. Tender conversation between her
+mother and her.--Offers to give up all thoughts of Lovelace, if she may
+be freed from Solmes's address. Substance of one of Lovelace's letters,
+of her answer, and of his reply. Makes a proposal. Her mother goes down
+with it.
+
+LETTER XVIII. From the same.--The proposal rejected. Her mother affects
+severity to her. Another interesting conversation between them.
+
+LETTER XIX. From the same.--Her dutiful motives for putting her estate
+into her father's power. Why she thinks she ought not to have Solmes.
+Afflicted on her mother's account.
+
+LETTER XX. XXI. From the same.--Another conference with her mother, who
+leaves her in anger.--She goes down to beg her favour. Solmes comes in.
+She offers to withdraw; but is forbid. What follows upon it.
+
+LETTER XXII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Substance of a letter from
+Lovelace. She desires leave to go to church. Is referred to her brother,
+and insultingly refused by him. Her letter to him. His answer.
+
+LETTER XXIII. XXIV. XXV. From the same.--Her faithful Hannah
+disgracefully dismissed. Betty Barnes, her sister's maid, set over her.
+A letter from her brother forbidding her to appear in the presence of
+any of her relations without leave. Her answer. Writes to her mother.
+Her mother's answer. Writes to her father. His answer.
+
+LETTER XXVI. From the same.--Is desirous to know the opinion Lord M.'s
+family have of her. Substance of a letter from Lovelace, resenting the
+indignities he receives from her relations. She freely acquaints him
+that he has nothing to expect from her contrary to her duty. Insists
+that his next letter shall be his last.
+
+LETTER XXVII. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Advises her to resume her estate.
+Her satirical description of Solmes. Rallies her on her curiosity to
+know what opinion Lord M. and his family have of her. Ascribes to the
+difference in each of their tempers their mutual love. Gives particulars
+of a conversation between her mother and her on Clarissa's case.
+Reflects on the Harlowe family, and particularly on Mrs. Harlowe, for
+her passiveness.
+
+LETTER XXVIII. Clarissa. In answer.--Chides her for the liberties she
+takes with her relations. Particularly defends her mother. Chides her
+also for her lively airs to her own mother. Desires her to treat her
+freely; but wishes not that she should impute love to her; and why.
+
+LETTER XXIX. From the same.--Her expostulatory letter to her brother and
+sister. Their answers.
+
+LETTER XXX. From the same.--Exceedingly angry with Lovelace, on his
+coming to their church. Reflections on pride, &c.
+
+LETTER XXXI. Mr. Lovelace to John Belford, Esq.--Pride, revenge, love,
+ambition, or a desire of conquest, his avowedly predominant passions.
+His early vow to ruin as many of the fair sex as he can get into his
+power. His pretences for it. Breathes revenge against the Harlowe
+family. Glories in his contrivances. Is passionately in love with
+Clarissa. His high notions of her beauty and merit. Yet is incensed
+against her for preferring her own relations to him. Clears her,
+however, of intentional pride, scorn, haughtiness, or want of
+sensibility. What a triumph over the sex, and over her whole family, if
+he can carry off a lady so watchful and so prudent! Is resolved, if he
+cannot have the sister, to carry off the brother. Libertine as he is,
+can have no thoughts of any other woman but Clarissa. Warns Belford,
+Mowbray, Tourville, and Belton, to hold themselves in readiness to
+obey his summons, on the likelihood there is of room for what he calls
+glorious mischief.
+
+LETTER XXXII. XXXIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Copies of her letters to
+her two uncles; and of their characteristic answer.--Her expostulatory
+letter to Solmes. His answer.--An insolent letter from her brother, on
+her writing to Solmes.
+
+LETTER XXXIV. Lovelace to Belford.--He directs him to come down to him.
+For what end. Description of the poor inn he puts up at in disguise; and
+of the innocent daughter there, whom he calls his Rosebud. He resolves
+to spare her. Pride and policy his motives, and not principle. Ingenuous
+reflections on his own vicious disposition. He had been a rogue, he
+says, had he been a plough-boy. Resolves on an act of generosity for
+his Rosebud, by way of atonement, as he calls it, for some of his bad
+actions; and for other reasons which appear in the sequel.
+
+LETTER XXXV. From the same.--His artful contrivances and dealings with
+Joseph Leman. His revenge and his love uppermost by turns. If the latter
+succeeds not, he vows that the Harlowes shall feel the former, although
+for it he become an exile from his country forever. He will throw
+himself into Clarissa's presence in the woodhouse. If he thought he had
+no prospect of her favour, he would attempt to carry her off: that, he
+says, would be a rape worthy of a Jupiter. The arts he is resolved to
+practise when he sees her, in order to engage her future reliance upon
+his honour.
+
+LETTER XXXVI. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Lovelace, in disguise, surprises
+her in the woodhouse. Her terrors on first seeing him. He greatly
+engages her confidence (as he had designed) by his respectful behaviour.
+
+LETTER XXXVII. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--After rallying her on her not
+readily owning the passion which she supposes she has for Lovelace, she
+desires to know how far she thinks him eligible for his best qualities,
+how far rejectable for his worst.
+
+LETTER XXXVIII. XXXIX. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--She disclaims tyranny to
+a man who respects her. Her unhappy situation to be considered, in
+which the imputed love is held by her parents to be an undutiful, and
+therefore a criminal passion, and where the supposed object of it is a
+man of faulty morals. Is interrupted by a visit from Mrs. Norton, who
+is sent up to her to influence her in Solmes's favour. An affecting
+conversation between them. What passes upon it, and after it.
+
+LETTER XL. From the same.--Resumes the requested subject. What sort of
+man she could have preferred to Mr. Lovelace. Arguments she has used to
+herself in his favour, and in his disfavour. Frankly owns that were he
+now a moral man, she would prefer him to all the men she ever saw. Yet
+is persuaded, that she could freely give up the one man to get rid of
+the other, as she had offered to her friends. Her delicacy affected
+by Miss Howe's raillery; and why. Gives her opinion of the force which
+figure or person may be allowed to have upon her sex.
+
+LETTER XLI. From the same.--A letter from her mother (with patterns of
+rich silks) in which she entreats her to comply with all their wishes.
+What ought to be the principal view of a good wife in adorning her
+person. Her distress. Begs leave to wait upon her mother alone. Her
+father's angry letter, ordering her to prepare for her wedding-day.
+Solmes requests to see her. She refuses. All in tumults below upon
+it. Her brother and her sister desire that she may be left to their
+management.
+
+LETTER XLII. From the same.--A very warm dialogue between her sister
+and her. Her sister's envy, unnatural behaviour, and violence. Clarissa
+sends down proposals in writing to her friends, and a letter to her
+brother. His insolent answer; in which he tells her, that her proposal
+will be considered in full assembly next morning; but that, if they
+shall be complied with, he will retire to Scotland, and never more
+return to Harlowe-place.
+
+LETTER XLIII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Hardly doubts but her proposals
+will be accepted. Paints to herself, as her relations arrive one by one,
+what their deliberations, and the result of them will be, when they are
+all assembled. Her proposals rejected. Her sister's cruel insults on the
+occasion produce another warm dialogue between them. Her sister leaves
+her in a fury. She is greatly disturbed at the contents of a letter from
+Lovelace.
+
+LETTER XLIV. From the same.--Her aunt Hervey, accompanied by her sister,
+makes her a visit. Farther insults from her sister. Her aunt's fruitless
+pleas in Solmes's favour.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF CLARISSA HARLOWE
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I
+
+MISS ANNA HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE JAN 10.
+
+
+I am extremely concerned, my dearest friend, for the disturbances that
+have happened in your family. I know how it must hurt you to become
+the subject of the public talk: and yet, upon an occasion so generally
+known, it is impossible but that whatever relates to a young lady, whose
+distinguished merits have made her the public care, should engage every
+body's attention. I long to have the particulars from yourself; and of
+the usage I am told you receive upon an accident you could not help; and
+in which, as far as I can learn, the sufferer was the aggressor.
+
+Mr. Diggs, the surgeon, whom I sent for at the first hearing of the
+rencounter, to inquire, for your sake, how your brother was, told me,
+that there was no danger from the wound, if there were none from the
+fever; which it seems has been increased by the perturbation of his
+spirits.
+
+Mr. Wyerley drank tea with us yesterday; and though he is far from being
+partial to Mr. Lovelace, as it may well be supposed, yet both he and Mr.
+Symmes blame your family for the treatment they gave him when he went
+in person to inquire after your brother's health, and to express his
+concern for what had happened.
+
+They say, that Mr. Lovelace could not avoid drawing his sword: and that
+either your brother's unskilfulness or passion left him from the very
+first pass entirely in his power.
+
+This, I am told, was what Mr. Lovelace said upon it; retreating as he
+spoke: 'Have a care, Mr. Harlowe--your violence puts you out of your
+defence. You give me too much advantage. For your sister's sake, I will
+pass by every thing:--if--'
+
+But this the more provoked his rashness, to lay himself open to the
+advantage of his adversary--who, after a slight wound given him in the
+arm, took away his sword.
+
+There are people who love not your brother, because of his natural
+imperiousness and fierce and uncontroulable temper: these say, that
+the young gentleman's passion was abated on seeing his blood gush
+plentifully down his arm; and that he received the generous offices of
+his adversary (who helped him off with his coat and waistcoat, and bound
+up his arm, till the surgeon could come,) with such patience, as was far
+from making a visit afterwards from that adversary, to inquire after his
+health, appear either insulting or improper.
+
+Be this as it may, every body pities you. So steady, so uniform in your
+conduct: so desirous, as you always said, of sliding through life to the
+end of it unnoted; and, as I may add, not wishing to be observed
+even for your silent benevolence; sufficiently happy in the noble
+consciousness which attends it: Rather useful than glaring, your
+deserved motto; though now, to your regret, pushed into blaze, as I may
+say: and yet blamed at home for the faults of others--how must such a
+virtue suffer on every hand!--yet it must be allowed, that your present
+trial is but proportioned to your prudence.
+
+As all your friends without doors are apprehensive that some other
+unhappy event may result from so violent a contention, in which it seems
+the families on both sides are now engaged, I must desire you to enable
+me, on the authority of your own information, to do you occasional
+justice.
+
+My mother, and all of us, like the rest of the world, talk of nobody but
+you on this occasion, and of the consequences which may follow from the
+resentments of a man of Mr. Lovelace's spirit; who, as he gives out, has
+been treated with high indignity by your uncles. My mother will have
+it, that you cannot now, with any decency, either see him, or correspond
+with him. She is a good deal prepossessed by your uncle Antony; who
+occasionally calls upon us, as you know; and, on this rencounter, has
+represented to her the crime which it would be in a sister to encourage
+a man who is to wade into her favour (this was his expression) through
+the blood of her brother.
+
+Write to me therefore, my dear, the whole of your story from the
+time that Mr. Lovelace was first introduced into your family; and
+particularly an account of all that passed between him and your sister;
+about which there are different reports; some people scrupling not to
+insinuate that the younger sister has stolen a lover from the elder: and
+pray write in so full a manner as may satisfy those who know not so much
+of your affairs as I do. If anything unhappy should fall out from the
+violence of such spirits as you have to deal with, your account of all
+things previous to it will be your best justification.
+
+You see what you draw upon yourself by excelling all your sex. Every
+individual of it who knows you, or has heard of you, seems to think
+you answerable to her for your conduct in points so very delicate and
+concerning.
+
+Every eye, in short, is upon you with the expectation of an example. I
+wish to heaven you were at liberty to pursue your own methods: all
+would then, I dare say, be easy, and honourably ended. But I dread your
+directors and directresses; for your mother, admirably well qualified
+as she is to lead, must submit to be led. Your sister and brother will
+certainly put you out of your course.
+
+But this is a point you will not permit me to expatiate upon: pardon me
+therefore, and I have done.--Yet, why should I say, pardon me? when your
+concerns are my concerns? when your honour is my honour? when I love
+you, as never woman loved another? and when you have allowed of that
+concern and of that love; and have for years, which in persons so young
+may be called many, ranked in the first class of your friends,
+
+Your ever grateful and affectionate, ANNA HOWE.
+
+
+Will you oblige me with a copy of the preamble to the clauses in your
+grandfather's will in your favour; and allow me to send it to my aunt
+Harman?--She is very desirous to see it. Yet your character has so
+charmed her, that, though a stranger to you personally, she assents to
+the preference given you in that will, before she knows the testator's
+reasons for giving you that preference.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE HARLOWE-PLACE, JAN. 13.
+
+
+How you oppress me, my dearest friend, with your politeness! I cannot
+doubt your sincerity; but you should take care, that you give me not
+reason from your kind partiality to call in question your judgment. You
+do not distinguish that I take many admirable hints from you, and have
+the art to pass them upon you for my own: for in all you do, in all you
+say, nay, in your very looks (so animated!) you give lessons to one
+who loves you and observes you as I love you and observe you, without
+knowing that you do--So pray, my dear, be more sparing of your praise
+for the future, lest after this confession we should suspect that you
+secretly intend to praise yourself, while you would be thought only to
+commend another.
+
+Our family has indeed been strangely discomposed.--Discomposed!--It has
+been in tumults, ever since the unhappy transaction; and I have borne
+all the blame; yet should have had too much concern from myself, had I
+been more justly spared by every one else.
+
+For, whether it be owing to a faulty impatience, having been too
+indulgently treated to be inured to blame, or to the regret I have to
+hear those censured on my account, whom it is my duty to vindicate; I
+have sometimes wished, that it had pleased God to have taken me in my
+last fever, when I had every body's love and good opinion; but oftener
+that I had never been distinguished by my grandfather as I was: since
+that distinction has estranged from me my brother's and sister's
+affections; at least, has raised a jealousy with regard to the
+apprehended favour of my two uncles, that now-and-then overshadows their
+love.
+
+My brother being happily recovered of his fever, and his wound in a
+hopeful way, although he has not yet ventured abroad, I will be as
+particular as you desire in the little history you demand of me. But
+heaven forbid that any thing should ever happen which may require it to
+be produced for the purpose you mention!
+
+I will begin, as you command, with Mr. Lovelace's address to my sister;
+and be as brief as possible. I will recite facts only; and leave you
+to judge of the truth of the report raised, that the younger sister has
+robbed the elder.
+
+It was in pursuance of a conference between Lord M. and my uncle Antony,
+that Mr. Lovelace [my father and mother not forbidding] paid his respect
+to my sister Arabella. My brother was then in Scotland, busying himself
+in viewing the condition of the considerable estate which was left him
+there by his generous godmother, together with one as considerable in
+Yorkshire. I was also absent at my Dairy-house, as it is called,* busied
+in the accounts relating to the estate which my grandfather had
+the goodness to devise to me; and which once a year was left to my
+inspection, although I have given the whole into my father's power.
+
+
+     * Her grandfather, in order to invite her to him as often as
+     her other friends would spare her, indulged her in erecting
+     and fitting up a dairy-house in her own taste. When
+     finished, it was so much admired for its elegant simplicity
+     and convenience, that the whole seat (before, of old time,
+     from its situation, called The Grove) was generally known by
+     the name of The Dairy-house. Her grandfather in particular
+     was fond of having it so called.
+
+
+My sister made me a visit there the day after Mr. Lovelace had been
+introduced; and seemed highly pleased with the gentleman. His birth, his
+fortune in possession, a clear 2000L. a year, as Lord M. had assured
+my uncle; presumptive heir to that nobleman's large estate: his great
+expectations from Lady Sarah Sadleir and Lady Betty Lawrence; who with
+his uncle interested themselves very warmly (he being the last of his
+line) to see him married.
+
+'So handsome a man!--O her beloved Clary!' (for then she was ready
+to love me dearly, from the overflowings of her good humour on his
+account!) 'He was but too handsome a man for her!--Were she but as
+amiable as somebody, there would be a probability of holding his
+affections!--For he was wild, she heard; very wild, very gay; loved
+intrigue--but he was young; a man of sense: would see his error, could
+she but have patience with his faults, if his faults were not cured by
+marriage!'
+
+Thus she ran on; and then wanted me 'to see the charming man,' as she
+called him.--Again concerned, 'that she was not handsome enough for
+him;' with, 'a sad thing, that the man should have the advantage of
+the woman in that particular!'--But then, stepping to the glass, she
+complimented herself, 'That she was very well: that there were many
+women deemed passable who were inferior to herself: that she was always
+thought comely; and comeliness, let her tell me, having not so much
+to lose as beauty had, would hold, when that would evaporate or fly
+off:--nay, for that matter,' [and again she turned to the glass] 'her
+features were not irregular; her eyes not at all amiss.' And I remember
+they were more than usually brilliant at that time.--'Nothing, in short,
+to be found fault with, though nothing very engaging she doubted--was
+there, Clary.'
+
+Excuse me, my dear, I never was thus particular before; no, not to you.
+Nor would I now have written thus freely of a sister, but that she makes
+a merit to my brother of disowning that she ever liked him; as I shall
+mention hereafter: and then you will always have me give you minute
+descriptions, nor suffer me to pass by the air and manner in which
+things are spoken that are to be taken notice of; rightly observing,
+that air and manner often express more than the accompanying words.
+
+I congratulated her upon her prospects. She received my compliments with
+a great deal of self-complacency.
+
+She liked the gentleman still more at his next visit; and yet he made no
+particular address to her, although an opportunity was given him for
+it. This was wondered at, as my uncle has introduced him into our family
+declaredly as a visitor to my sister. But as we are ever ready to make
+excuses when in good humour with ourselves for the perhaps not unwilful
+slights of those whose approbation we wish to engage; so my sister found
+out a reason much to Mr. Lovelace's advantage for his not improving
+the opportunity that was given him.--It was bashfulness, truly, in him.
+[Bashfulness in Mr. Lovelace, my dear!]--Indeed, gay and lively as he
+is, he has not the look of an impudent man. But, I fancy, it is many,
+many years ago since he was bashful.
+
+Thus, however, could my sister make it out--'Upon her word, she believed
+Mr. Lovelace deserved not the bad character he had as to women.--He was
+really, to her thinking, a modest man. He would have spoken out, she
+believed; but once or twice as he seemed to intend to do so, he was
+under so agreeable a confusion! Such a profound respect he seemed to
+shew her! A perfect reverence, she thought: she loved dearly that a man
+in courtship should shew a reverence to his mistress'--So indeed we all
+do, I believe: and with reason; since, if I may judge from what I
+have seen in many families, there is little enough of it shewn
+afterwards.--And she told my aunt Hervey, that she would be a little
+less upon the reserve next time he came: 'She was not one of those
+flirts, not she, who would give pain to a person that deserved to be
+well-treated; and the more pain for the greatness of his value for
+her.'--I wish she had not somebody whom I love in her eye.
+
+In his third visit, Bella governed herself by this kind and considerate
+principle: so that, according to her own account of the matter, the man
+might have spoken out.--But he was still bashful: he was not able to
+overcome this unseasonable reverence. So this visit went off as the
+former.
+
+But now she began to be dissatisfied with him. She compared his general
+character with this his particular behaviour to her; and having never
+been courted before, owned herself puzzled how to deal with so odd a
+lover. 'What did the man mean, she wondered? Had not her uncle brought
+him declaredly as a suitor to her?--It could not be bashfulness (now she
+thought of it) since he might have opened his mind to her uncle, if he
+wanted courage to speak directly to her.--Not that she cared much for
+the man neither: but it was right, surely, that a woman should be put
+out of doubt early as to a man's intentions in such a case as this, from
+his own mouth.--But, truly, she had begun to think, that he was more
+solicitous to cultivate her mamma's good opinion, than hers!--Every
+body, she owned, admired her mother's conversation; but he was mistaken
+if he thought respect to her mother only would do with her. And
+then, for his own sake, surely he should put it into her power to
+be complaisant to him, if he gave her reason to approve of him. This
+distant behaviour, she must take upon herself to say, was the more
+extraordinary, as he continued his visits, and declared himself
+extremely desirous to cultivate a friendship with the whole family; and
+as he could have no doubt about her sense, if she might take upon her to
+join her own with the general opinion; he having taken great notice of,
+and admired many of her good things as they fell from her lips. Reserves
+were painful, she must needs say, to open and free spirits, like hers:
+and yet she must tell my aunt,' (to whom all this was directed) 'that
+she should never forget what she owed to her sex, and to herself, were
+Mr. Lovelace as unexceptionable in his morals as in his figure, and were
+he to urge his suit ever so warmly.'
+
+I was not of her council. I was still absent. And it was agreed upon
+between my aunt Hervey and her, that she was to be quite solemn and shy
+in his next visit, if there were not a peculiarity in his address to
+her.
+
+But my sister it seems had not considered the matter well. This was not
+the way, as it proved, to be taken for matters of mere omission, with a
+man of Mr. Lovelace's penetration. Nor with any man; since if love has
+not taken root deep enough to cause it to shoot out into declaration, if
+an opportunity be fairly given for it, there is little room to expect,
+that the blighting winds of anger or resentment will bring it forward.
+Then my poor sister is not naturally good-humoured. This is too
+well-known a truth for me to endeavor to conceal it, especially from
+you. She must therefore, I doubt, have appeared to great disadvantages
+when she aimed to be worse tempered than ordinary.
+
+How they managed it in their next conversation I know not. One would be
+tempted to think by the issue, that Mr. Lovelace was ungenerous enough
+to seek the occasion given,* and to improve it. Yet he thought fit to
+put the question too:--But, she says, it was not till, by some means
+or other (she knew not how) he had wrought her up to such a pitch of
+displeasure with him, that it was impossible for her to recover herself
+at the instant. Nevertheless he re-urged his question, as expecting
+a definitive answer, without waiting for the return of her temper,
+or endeavouring to mollify her; so that she was under a necessity of
+persisting in her denial: yet gave him reason to think she did not
+dislike his address, only the manner of it; his court being rather made
+to her mother than to herself, as if he was sure of her consent at any
+time.
+
+
+     * See Mr. Lovelace's Letter, No. XXXI, in which he briefly
+     accounts for his conduct in this affair.
+
+
+A good encouraging denial, I must own: as was the rest of her plea; to
+wit, 'A disinclination to change her state. Exceedingly happy as she
+was: she never could be happier!' And such-like consenting negatives,
+as I may call them, and yet not intend a reflection upon my sister: for
+what can any young creature in the like circumstances say, when she is
+not sure but a too-ready consent may subject her to the slights of a sex
+that generally values a blessing either more or less as it is obtained
+with difficulty or ease? Miss Biddulph's answer to a copy of verse from
+a gentleman, reproaching our sex as acting in disguise, is not a bad
+one, although you may perhaps think it too acknowledging for the female
+character.
+
+ Ungen'rous Sex!--To scorn us if we're kind;
+   And yet upbraid us if we seem severe!
+ Do you, t' encourage us to tell our mind,
+   Yourselves put off disguise, and be sincere.
+ You talk of coquetry!--Your own false hearts
+ Compel our sex to act dissembling parts.
+
+Here I am obliged to lay down my pen. I will soon resume it.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE JAN. 13, 14.
+
+
+And thus, as Mr. Lovelace thought fit to take it, had he his answer from
+my sister. It was with very great regret, as he pretended, [I doubt
+the man is an hypocrite, my dear] that he acquiesced in it. 'So much
+determinedness; such a noble firmness in my sister, that there was no
+hope of prevailing upon her to alter sentiments she had adopted on full
+consideration.' He sighed, as Bella told us, when he took his leave of
+her: 'Profoundly sighed; grasped her hand, and kissed it with such an
+ardour--Withdrew with such an air of solemn respect--She could almost
+find it in her heart, although he had vexed her, to pity him.' A good
+intentional preparative to love, this pity; since, at the time, she
+little thought that he would not renew his offer.
+
+He waited on my mother after he had taken leave of Bella, and reported
+his ill success in so respectful a manner, as well with regard to my
+sister, as to the whole family, and with so much concern that he was
+not accepted as a relation to it, that it left upon them all (my brother
+being then, as I have said, in Scotland) impressions in his favour, and
+a belief that this matter would certainly be brought on again. But Mr.
+Lovelace going up directly to town, where he staid a whole fortnight,
+and meeting there with my uncle Antony, to whom he regretted his niece's
+cruel resolution not to change her state; it was seen that there was a
+total end of the affair.
+
+My sister was not wanting to herself on this occasion. She made a
+virtue of necessity; and the man was quite another man with her. 'A vain
+creature! Too well knowing his advantages: yet those not what she had
+conceived them to be!--Cool and warm by fits and starts; an ague-like
+lover. A steady man, a man of virtue, a man of morals, was worth a
+thousand of such gay flutterers. Her sister Clary might think it worth
+her while perhaps to try to engage such a man: she had patience: she
+was mistress of persuasion: and indeed, to do the girl justice, had
+something of a person: But as for her, she would not have a man of whose
+heart she could not be sure for one moment; no, not for the world: and
+most sincerely glad was she that she had rejected him.'
+
+But when Mr. Lovelace returned into the country, he thought fit to visit
+my father and mother; hoping, as he told them, that, however unhappy
+he had been in the rejection of the wished-for alliance, he might be
+allowed to keep up an acquaintance and friendship with a family which he
+should always respect. And then unhappily, as I may say, was I at home
+and present.
+
+It was immediately observed, that his attention was fixed on me. My
+sister, as soon as he was gone, in a spirit of bravery, seemed desirous
+to promote his address, should it be tendered.
+
+My aunt Hervey was there; and was pleased to say, we should make the
+finest couple in England--if my sister had no objection.--No, indeed!
+with a haughty toss, was my sister's reply--it would be strange if she
+had, after the denial she had given him upon full deliberation.
+
+My mother declared, that her only dislike of his alliance with either
+daughter, was on account of his reputed faulty morals.
+
+My uncle Harlowe, that his daughter Clary, as he delighted to call me
+from childhood, would reform him if any woman in the world could.
+
+My uncle Antony gave his approbation in high terms: but referred, as my
+aunt had done, to my sister.
+
+She repeated her contempt of him; and declared, that, were there not
+another man in England, she would not have him. She was ready, on the
+contrary, she could assure them, to resign her pretensions under hand
+and seal, if Miss Clary were taken with his tinsel, and if every one
+else approved of his address to the girl.
+
+My father indeed, after a long silence, being urged by my uncle Antony
+to speak his mind, said, that he had a letter from his son, on his
+hearing of Mr. Lovelace's visits to his daughter Arabella; which he had
+not shewn to any body but my mother; that treaty being at an end when
+he received it: that in this letter he expressed great dislike to an
+alliance with Mr. Lovelace on the score of his immoralities: that he
+knew, indeed, there was an old grudge between them; but that, being
+desirous to prevent all occasions of disunion and animosity in his
+family, he would suspend the declaration of his own mind till his son
+arrived, and till he had heard his further objections: that he was the
+more inclined to make his son this compliment, as Mr. Lovelace's general
+character gave but too much ground for his son's dislike of him; adding,
+that he had hear (so, he supposed, had every one,) that he was a very
+extravagant man; that he had contracted debts in his travels: and
+indeed, he was pleased to say, he had the air of a spendthrift.
+
+These particulars I had partly from my aunt Hervey, and partly from my
+sister; for I was called out as soon as the subject was entered upon.
+When I returned, my uncle Antony asked me, how I should like Mr.
+Lovelace? Every body saw, he was pleased to say, that I had made a
+conquest.
+
+I immediately answered, that I did not like him at all: he seemed to
+have too good an opinion both on his person and parts, to have any
+regard to his wife, let him marry whom he would.
+
+My sister particularly was pleased with this answer, and confirmed it to
+be just; with a compliment to my judgment.--For it was hers.
+
+But the very next day Lord M. came to Harlowe-Place [I was then absent];
+and in his nephew's name made a proposal in form; declaring, that it was
+the ambition of all his family to be related to ours: and he hoped his
+kinsman would not have such an answer on the part of the younger sister,
+as he had on that of the elder.
+
+In short, Mr. Lovelace's visits were admitted as those of a man who had
+not deserved disrespect from our family; but as to his address to
+me, with a reservation, as above, on my father's part, that he would
+determine nothing without his son. My discretion as to the rest was
+confided in: for still I had the same objections as to the man: nor
+would I, when we were better acquainted, hear any thing but general talk
+from him; giving him no opportunity of conversing with me in private.
+
+He bore this with a resignation little expected from his natural temper,
+which is generally reported to be quick and hasty; unused it seems
+from childhood to check or controul. A case too common in considerable
+families where there is an only son: and his mother never had any
+other child. But, as I have heretofore told you, I could perceive,
+notwithstanding this resignation, that he had so good an opinion of
+himself, as not to doubt, that his person and accomplishments would
+insensibly engage me: And could that be once done, he told my aunt
+Hervey, he should hope, from so steady a temper, that his hold in my
+affections would be durable: While my sister accounted for his patience
+in another manner, which would perhaps have had more force if it had
+come from a person less prejudiced: 'That the man was not fond of
+marrying at all: that he might perhaps have half a score mistresses: and
+that delay might be as convenient for his roving, as for my well-acted
+indifference.' That was her kind expression.
+
+Whatever was his motive for a patience so generally believed to be out
+of his usual character, and where the object of his address was supposed
+to be of fortune considerable enough to engage his warmest attention,
+he certainly escaped many mortifications by it: for while my father
+suspended his approbation till my brother's arrival, Mr. Lovelace
+received from every one those civilities which were due to his birth:
+and although we heard from time to time reports to his disadvantage with
+regard to morals, yet could we not question him upon them without giving
+him greater advantages in his own opinion than the situation he was in
+with us would justify to prudence; since it was much more likely that
+his address would not be allowed of, than that it would.
+
+And thus was he admitted to converse with our family almost upon his own
+terms; for while my friends saw nothing in his behaviour but what was
+extremely respectful, and observed in him no violent importunity,
+they seemed to have taken a great liking to his conversation: While I
+considered him only as a common guest when he came; and thought myself
+no more concerned in his visits, not at his entrance and departure, than
+any other of the family.
+
+But this indifference on my side was the means of procuring him one
+very great advantage; since upon it was grounded that correspondence by
+letters which succeeded;--and which, had it been to be begun when the
+family animosity broke out, would never have been entered into on my
+part. The occasion was this:
+
+My uncle Hervey has a young gentleman intrusted to his care, whom he has
+thoughts of sending abroad a year or two hence, to make the Grand Tour,
+as it is called; and finding Mr. Lovelace could give a good account
+of every thing necessary for a young traveller to observe upon such an
+occasion, he desired him to write down a description of the courts and
+countries he had visited, and what was most worthy of curiosity in them.
+
+He consented, on condition that I would direct his subjects, as he
+called it: and as every one had heard his manner of writing commended;
+and thought his narratives might be agreeable amusements in winter
+evenings; and that he could have no opportunity particularly to address
+me directly in them, since they were to be read in full assembly before
+they were given to the young gentleman, I made the less scruple to
+write, and to make observations, and put questions for our further
+information--Still the less perhaps as I love writing; and those who do,
+are fond, you know, of occasions to use the pen: And then, having
+ever one's consent, and my uncle Hervey's desire that I would write,
+I thought that if I had been the only scrupulous person, it would have
+shewn a particularity that a vain man might construe to his advantage;
+and which my sister would not fail to animadvert upon.
+
+You have seen some of these letters; and have been pleased with this
+account of persons, places, and things; and we have both agreed, that he
+was no common observer upon what he had seen.
+
+My sister allowed that the man had a tolerable knack of writing and
+describing: And my father, who had been abroad in his youth, said, that
+his remarks were curious, and shewed him to be a person of reading,
+judgment and taste.
+
+Thus was a kind of correspondence begun between him and me, with general
+approbation; while every one wondered at, and was pleased with, his
+patient veneration of me; for so they called it. However, it was not
+doubted but he would soon be more importunate, since his visits were
+more frequent, and he acknowledged to my aunt Hervey a passion for me,
+accompanied with an awe that he had never known before; to which he
+attributed what he called his but seeming acquiescence with my father's
+pleasure, and the distance I kept him at. And yet, my dear, this may be
+his usual manner of behaviour to our sex; for had not my sister at first
+all his reverence?
+
+Mean time, my father, expecting his importunity, kept in readiness the
+reports he had heard in his disfavour, to charge them upon him then, as
+so many objections to address. And it was highly agreeable to me that he
+did so: it would have been strange if it were not; since the person who
+could reject Mr. Wyerley's address for the sake of his free opinions,
+must have been inexcusable, had she not rejected another's for his freer
+practices.
+
+But I should own, that in the letters he sent me upon the general
+subject, he more than once inclosed a particular one, declaring his
+passionate regards for me, and complaining with fervour enough, of my
+reserves. But of these I took not the least notice: for, as I had not
+written to him at all, but upon a subject so general, I thought it was
+but right to let what he wrote upon one so particular pass off as if I
+had never seen it; and the rather, as I was not then at liberty (from
+the approbation his letters met with) to break off the correspondence,
+unless I had assigned the true reason for doing so. Besides, with all
+his respectful assiduities, it was easy to observe, (if it had not been
+his general character) that his temper is naturally haughty and violent;
+and I had seen too much of that untractable spirit in my brother to like
+it in one who hoped to be still more nearly related to me.
+
+I had a little specimen of this temper of his upon the very occasion I
+have mentioned: For after he had sent me a third particular letter with
+the general one, he asked me the next time he came to Harlowe-Place,
+if I had not received such a one from him?--I told him I should never
+answer one so sent; and that I had waited for such an occasion as he had
+now given me, to tell him so: I desired him therefore not to write again
+on the subject; assuring him, that if he did, I would return both, and
+never write another line to him.
+
+You can't imagine how saucily the man looked; as if, in short, he was
+disappointed that he had not made a more sensible impression upon me:
+nor, when he recollected himself (as he did immediately), what a visible
+struggle it cost him to change his haughty airs for more placid ones.
+But I took no notice of either; for I thought it best to convince him,
+by the coolness and indifference with which I repulsed his forward hopes
+(at the same time intending to avoid the affectation of pride or
+vanity) that he was not considerable enough in my eyes to make me take
+over-ready offence at what he said, or at his haughty looks: in other
+words, that I had not value enough for him to treat him with peculiarity
+either by smiles or frowns. Indeed he had cunning enough to give me,
+undesignedly, a piece of instruction which taught me this caution; for
+he had said in conversation once, 'That if a man could not make a woman
+in courtship own herself pleased with him, it was as much and oftentimes
+more to his purpose to make her angry with him.'
+
+I must break off here, but will continue the subject the very first
+opportunity. Mean time, I am
+
+Your most affectionate friend and servant, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE JAN. 15.
+
+
+Such, my dear, was the situation Mr. Lovelace and I were in when my
+brother arrived from Scotland.
+
+The moment Mr. Lovelace's visits were mentioned to him, he, without
+either hesitation or apology, expressed his disapprobation of them. He
+found great flaws in his character; and took the liberty to say in so
+many words, that he wondered how it came into the heads of his uncles
+to encourage such a man for either of his sisters: At the same time
+returning his thanks to my father for declining his consent till he
+arrived, in such a manner, I thought, as a superior would do, when he
+commended an inferior for having well performed his duty in his absence.
+
+He justified his avowed inveteracy by common fame, and by what he had
+known of him at college; declaring, that he had ever hated him; ever
+should hate him; and would never own him for a brother, or me for a
+sister, if I married him.
+
+That early antipathy I have heard accounted for in this manner:
+
+Mr. Lovelace was always noted for his vivacity and courage; and no less,
+it seems, for the swift and surprising progress he made in all parts of
+literature: for diligence in his studies in the hours of study, he
+had hardly his equal. This it seems was his general character at the
+university; and it gained him many friends among the more learned; while
+those who did not love him, feared him, by reason of the offence his
+vivacity made him too ready to give, and of the courage he shewed in
+supporting the offence when given; which procured him as many followers
+as he pleased among the mischievous sort.--No very amiable character,
+you'll say, upon the whole.
+
+But my brother's temper was not more happy. His native haughtiness could
+not bear a superiority so visible; and whom we fear more than love, we
+are not far from hating: and having less command of his passions than
+the other, he was evermore the subject of his perhaps indecent
+ridicule: so that every body, either from love or fear, siding with his
+antagonist, he had a most uneasy time of it while both continued in the
+same college.--It was the less wonder therefore that a young man who is
+not noted for the gentleness of his temper, should resume an antipathy
+early begun, and so deeply rooted.
+
+He found my sister, who waited but for the occasion, ready to join him
+in his resentments against the man he hated. She utterly disclaimed
+all manner of regard for him: 'Never liked him at all:--His estate was
+certainly much incumbered: it was impossible it should be otherwise; so
+entirely devoted as he was to his pleasures. He kept no house; had no
+equipage: Nobody pretended that he wanted pride: the reason therefore
+was easy to be guessed at.' And then did she boast of, and my brother
+praised her for, refusing him: and both joined on all occasions to
+depreciate him, and not seldom made the occasions; their displeasure
+against him causing every subject to run into this, if it began not with
+it.
+
+I was not solicitous to vindicate him when I was not joined in their
+reflection. I told them I did not value him enough to make a difference
+in the family on his account: and as he was supposed to have given
+much cause for their ill opinion of him, I thought he ought to take the
+consequence of his own faults.
+
+Now and then indeed, when I observed that their vehemence carried them
+beyond all bounds of probability in their charges against him, I thought
+it but justice to put in a word for him. But this only subjected me
+to reproach, as having a prepossession in his favour which I would not
+own.--So that, when I could not change the subject, I used to retire
+either to my music, or to my closet.
+
+Their behaviour to him, when they could not help seeing him, was very
+cold and disobliging; but as yet not directly affrontive. For they were
+in hopes of prevailing upon my father to forbid his visits. But as there
+was nothing in his behaviour, that might warrant such a treatment of
+a man of his birth and fortune, they succeeded not: And then they were
+very earnest with me to forbid them. I asked, what authority I had to
+take such a step in my father's house; and when my behaviour to him was
+so distant, that he seemed to be as much the guest of any other person
+of the family, themselves excepted, as mine?--In revenge, they told me,
+that it was cunning management between us; and that we both understood
+one another better than we pretended to do. And at last they gave such a
+loose to their passions, all of a sudden* as I may say, that instead of
+withdrawing, as they used to do when he came, they threw themselves in
+his way purposely to affront him.
+
+
+     * The reason of this their more openly shown animosity is
+     given in Letter XIII.
+
+
+Mr. Lovelace, you may believe, very ill brooked this: but nevertheless
+contented himself to complain of it to me: in high terms, however,
+telling me, that but for my sake my brother's treatment of him was not
+to be borne.
+
+I was sorry for the merit this gave him in his own opinion with me: and
+the more, as some of the affronts he received were too flagrant to be
+excused: But I told him, that I was determined not to fall out with
+my brother, if I could help it, whatever faults he had: and since they
+could not see one another with temper, should be glad that he would not
+throw himself in my brother's way; and I was sure my brother would not
+seek him.
+
+He was very much nettled at this answer: But said, he must bear his
+affronts if I would have it so. He had been accused himself of violence
+in his temper; but he hoped to shew on this occasion that he had a
+command of his passions which few young men, so highly provoked, would
+be able to shew; and doubted not but it would be attributed to a proper
+motive by a person of my generosity and penetration.
+
+My brother had just before, with the approbation of my uncles, employed
+a person related to a discharged bailiff or steward of Lord M. who had
+had the management of some part of Mr. Lovelace's affairs (from which
+he was also dismissed by him) to inquire into his debts, after his
+companions, into his amours, and the like.
+
+My aunt Hervey, in confidence, gave me the following particulars of what
+the man had said of him.
+
+'That he was a generous landlord: that he spared nothing for solid and
+lasting improvements upon his estate; and that he looked into his own
+affairs, and understood them: that he had been very expensive when
+abroad; and contracted a large debt (for he made no secret of his
+affairs); yet chose to limit himself to an annual sum, and to decline
+equipage, in order to avoid being obliged to his uncle and aunts; from
+whom he might have what money he pleased; but that he was very jealous
+of their controul; had often quarrels with them; and treated them so
+freely, that they were all afraid of him. However, that his estate was
+never mortgaged, as my brother had heard it was; his credit was always
+high; and the man believed, he was by this time near upon, if not quite,
+clear of the world.
+
+'He was a sad gentleman, he said, as to women:--If his tenants had
+pretty daughters, they chose to keep them out of his sight. He believed
+he kept no particular mistress; for he had heard newelty, that was the
+man's word, was every thing with him. But for his uncle's and aunt's
+teazings, the man fancied he would not think of marriage: he was never
+known to be disguised with liquor; but was a great plotter, and a great
+writer: That he lived a wild life in town, by what he had heard: had six
+or seven companions as bad as himself; whom now and then he brought down
+with him; and the country was always glad when they went up again. He
+would have it, that although passionate, he was good-humoured; loved
+as well to take a jest as to give one; and would rally himself upon
+occasion the freest of any man he ever knew.'
+
+This was his character from an enemy; for, as my aunt observed, every
+thing the man said commendably of him came grudgingly, with a must needs
+say--to do him justice, &c. while the contrary was delivered with a free
+good-will. And this character, as a worse was expected, though this was
+bad enough, not answering the end of inquiring after it, my brother and
+sister were more apprehensive than before, that his address would be
+encouraged, since the worst part of it was known, or supposed, when he
+was first introduced to my sister.
+
+But, with regard to myself, I must observe in his disfavour, that,
+notwithstanding the merit he wanted to make with me for his patience
+upon my brother's ill-treatment of him, I owed him no compliments
+for trying to conciliate with him. Not that I believe it would have
+signified any thing if he had made ever such court either to him or to
+my sister: yet one might have expected from a man of his politeness, and
+from his pretensions, you know, that he would have been willing to try.
+Instead of which, he shewed such a contempt both of my brother and my
+sister, especially my brother, as was construed into a defiance of
+them. And for me to have hinted at an alteration in his behaviour to my
+brother, was an advantage I knew he would have been proud of; and which
+therefore I had no mind to give him. But I doubted not that having so
+very little encouragement from any body, his pride would soon take fire,
+and he would of himself discontinue his visits, or go to town; where,
+till he came acquainted with our family, he used chiefly to reside: And
+in this latter case he had no reason to expect, that I would receive,
+much less answer, his Letters: the occasions which had led me to receive
+any of his, being by this time over.
+
+But my brother's antipathy would not permit him to wait for such an
+event; and after several excesses, which Mr. Lovelace still returned
+with contempt, and a haughtiness too much like that of the aggressor, my
+brother took upon himself to fill up the door-way once when he came, as
+if to oppose his entrance: And upon his asking for me, demanded, what
+his business was with his sister?
+
+The other, with a challenging air, as my brother says, told him, he
+would answer a gentleman any question; but he wished that Mr. James
+Harlowe, who had of late given himself high airs, would remember that he
+was not now at college.
+
+Just then the good Dr. Lewen, who frequently honours me with a visit of
+conversation, as he is pleased to call it, and had parted with me in my
+own parlour, came to the door: and hearing the words, interposed; both
+having their hands upon their swords: and telling Mr. Lovelace where
+I was, he burst by my brother, to come to me; leaving him chafing, he
+said, like a hunted boar at bay.
+
+This alarmed us all. My father was pleased to hint to Mr. Lovelace,
+that he wished he would discontinue his visits for the peace-sake of the
+family: And I, by his command, spoke a great deal plainer.
+
+But Mr. Lovelace is a man not easily brought to give up his purpose,
+especially in a point wherein he pretends his heart is so much engaged:
+and no absolute prohibition having been given, things went on for a
+little while as before: for I saw plainly, that to have denied myself to
+his visits (which however I declined receiving as often as I could) was
+to bring forward some desperate issue between the two; since the offence
+so readily given on one side was brooked by the other only out of
+consideration to me.
+
+And thus did my brother's rashness lay me under an obligation where I
+would least have owed it.
+
+The intermediate proposals of Mr. Symmes and Mr. Mullins, both (in turn)
+encouraged by my brother, induced him to be more patient for a while,
+as nobody thought me over-forward in Mr. Lovelace's favour; for he hoped
+that he should engage my father and uncles to approve of the one or the
+other in opposition to the man he hated. But when he found that I
+had interest enough to disengage myself from the addresses of those
+gentlemen, as I had (before he went to Scotland, and before Mr. Lovelace
+visited here) of Mr. Wyerley's, he then kept no measures: and first set
+himself to upbraid me for supposed prepossession, which he treated as
+if it were criminal; and then to insult Mr. Lovelace in person, at Mr.
+Edward Symmes's, the brother of the other Symmes, two miles off; and
+no good Dr. Lewen being there to interpose, the unhappy rencounter
+followed. My brother was disarmed, as you have heard; and on being
+brought home, and giving us ground to suppose he was much worse hurt
+than he really was, and a fever ensuing, every one flamed out; and all
+was laid at my door.
+
+Mr. Lovelace for three days together sent twice each day to inquire
+after my brother's health; and although he received rude and even
+shocking returns, he thought fit on the fourth day to make in person
+the same inquiries; and received still greater incivilities from my two
+uncles, who happened to be both there. My father also was held by force
+from going to him with his sword in his hand, although he had the gout
+upon him.
+
+I fainted away with terror, seeing every one so violent, and hearing Mr.
+Lovelace swear that he would not depart till he had made my uncles ask
+his pardon for the indignities he had received at their hands; a door
+being held fast locked between him and them. My mother all the time
+was praying and struggling to with-hold my father in the great parlour.
+Meanwhile my sister, who had treated Mr. Lovelace with virulence, came
+in to me, and insulted me as fast as I recovered. But when Mr. Lovelace
+was told how ill I was, he departed; nevertheless vowing revenge.
+
+He was ever a favourite with our domestics. His bounty to them, and
+having always something facetious to say to each, had made them all of
+his party: and on this occasion they privately blamed every body else,
+and reported his calm and gentlemanly behaviour (till the provocations
+given him ran very high) in such favourable terms, that those reports,
+and my apprehensions of the consequence of this treatment, induced me to
+read a letter he sent me that night; and, it being written in the most
+respectful terms (offering to submit the whole to my decision, and to
+govern himself entirely by my will) to answer it some days after.
+
+To this unhappy necessity was owing our renewed correspondence, as I
+may call it; yet I did not write till I had informed myself from Mr.
+Symmes's brother, that he was really insulted into the act of drawing
+his sword by my brother's repeatedly threatening (upon his excusing
+himself out of regard to me) to brand me ir he did not; and, by all the
+inquiry I could make, that he was again the sufferer from my uncles in a
+more violent manner than I have related.
+
+The same circumstances were related to my father and other relations by
+Mr. Symmes; but they had gone too far in making themselves parties
+to the quarrel either to retract or forgive; and I was forbidden to
+correspond with him, or to be seen a moment in his company.
+
+One thing however I can say, but that in confidence, because my mother
+commanded me not to mention it:--That, expressing her apprehension of
+the consequences of the indignities offered to Mr. Lovelace, she told
+me, she would leave it to my prudence to do all I could to prevent the
+impending mischief on one side.
+
+I am obliged to break off. But I believe I have written enough to answer
+very fully all that you have required of me. It is not for a child
+to seek to clear her own character, or to justify her actions, at the
+expense of the most revered ones: yet, as I know that the account of
+all those further proceedings by which I may be affected, will be
+interesting to so dear a friend (who will communicate to others no more
+than what is fitting) I will continue to write, as I have opportunity,
+as minutely as we are used to write to each other. Indeed I have
+no delight, as I have often told you, equal to that which I take in
+conversing with you by letter, when I cannot in person.
+
+Mean time, I cannot help saying, that I am exceedingly concerned to
+find, that I am become so much the public talk as you tell me I am. Your
+kind, your precautionary regard for my fame, and the opportunity you
+have given me to tell my own story previous to any new accident (which
+heaven avert!) is so like the warm friend I have ever found in my dear
+Miss Howe, that, with redoubled obligation, you bind me to be
+
+Your ever grateful and affectionate, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+Copy of the requested Preamble to the clauses in her Grandfather's Will:
+inclosed in the preceding Letter.
+
+
+As the particular estate I have mentioned and described above, is
+principally of my own raising: as my three sons have been uncommonly
+prosperous; and are very rich: the eldest by means of the unexpected
+benefits he reaps from his new found mines; the second, by what has, as
+unexpectedly, fallen in to him on the deaths of several relations of
+his present wife, the worthy daughter by both sides of very honourable
+families; over and above the very large portion which he received with
+her in marriage: my son Antony by his East-India traffic, and successful
+voyages: as furthermore my grandson James will be sufficiently provided
+for by his grandmother Lovell's kindness to him; who, having no near
+relations, hath assured me, that she hath, as well by deed of gift as
+by will, left him both her Scottish and English estates: for never
+was there a family more prosperous in all its branches, blessed be God
+therefore: and as my said son James will very probably make it up to
+my grand-daughter Arabella; to whom I intend no disrespect; nor have
+reason; for she is a very hopeful and dutiful child: and as my sons,
+John and Antony, seem not inclined to a married life; so that my son
+James is the only one who has children, or is likely to have any. For
+all these reasons; and because my dearest and beloved grand-daughter
+Clarissa hath been from her infancy a matchless young creature in her
+duty to me, and admired by all who knew her, as a very extraordinary
+child; I must therefore take the pleasure of considering her as my own
+peculiar child; and this without intending offence; and I hope it
+will not be taken as any, since my son James can bestow his favours
+accordingly, and in greater proportion, upon his son James, and upon his
+daughter Arabella.--
+
+These, I say, are the reasons which move me to dispose of the
+above-described estate in the precious child's favour; who is the
+delight of my old age: and, I verily think, has contributed, by her
+amiable duty and kind and tender regards, to prolong my life.
+
+Wherefore it is my express will and commandment, and I enjoin my said
+three sons, John, James, and Antony, and my grandson James, and my
+grand-daughter Arabella, as they value my blessing, and will regard my
+memory, and would wish their own last wills and desires to be fulfilled
+by their survivors, that they will not impugn or contest the following
+bequests and devises in favour of my said grand-daughter Clarissa,
+although they should not be strictly conformable to law or to the forms
+thereof; nor suffer them to be controverted or disputed on any pretence
+whatsoever.
+
+And in this confidence, &c. &c. &c.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE JAN. 20
+
+
+I have been hindered from prosecuting my intention. Neither nights nor
+mornings have been my own. My mother has been very ill; and would have
+no other nurse but me. I have not stirred from her bedside (for she kept
+her bed); and two nights I had the honour of sharing it with her.
+
+Her disorder was a very violet colic. The contentions of these fierce,
+these masculine spirits, and the apprehension of mischiefs that may
+arise from the increasing animosity which all here have against Mr.
+Lovelace, and his too well known resenting and intrepid character, she
+cannot bear. Then the foundations laid, as she dreads, for jealousy and
+heart-burnings in her own family, late so happy and so united, afflict
+exceedingly a gentle and sensible mind, which has from the beginning, on
+all occasions, sacrificed its own inward satisfaction to outward peace.
+My brother and sister, who used very often to jar, are now so entirely
+one, and are so much together, (caballing was the word that dropt from
+my mother's lips, as if at unawares,) that she is very fearful of the
+consequences that may follow;--to my prejudice, perhaps, is her kind
+concern; since she sees that they behave to me every hour with more and
+more shyness and reserve: yet, would she but exert that authority which
+the superiority of her fine talents gives her, all these family feuds
+might perhaps be extinguished in their but yet beginnings; especially as
+she may be assured that all fitting concessions shall be made by me,
+not only as my brother and sister are my elders, but for the sake of so
+excellent and so indulgent a mother.
+
+For, if I may say to you, my dear, what I would not to any other person
+living, it is my opinion, that had she been of a temper that would have
+borne less, she would have had ten times less to bear, than she has had.
+No commendation, you'll say, of the generosity of those spirits which
+can turn to its own disquiet so much condescending goodness.
+
+Upon my word I am sometimes tempted to think that we may make the world
+allow for and respect us as we please, if we can but be sturdy in our
+wills, and set out accordingly. It is but being the less beloved for it,
+that's all: and if we have power to oblige those we have to do with, it
+will not appear to us that we are. Our flatterers will tell us any thing
+sooner than our faults, or what they know we do not like to hear.
+
+Were there not truth in this observation, is it possible that my brother
+and sister could make their very failings, their vehemences, of such
+importance to all the family? 'How will my son, how will my nephew, take
+this or that measure? What will he say to it? Let us consult him about
+it;' are references always previous to every resolution taken by his
+superiors, whose will ought to be his. Well may he expect to be treated
+with this deference by every other person, when my father himself,
+generally so absolute, constantly pays it to him; and the more since his
+godmother's bounty has given independence to a spirit that was before
+under too little restraint.--But whither may these reflections lead
+me!--I know you do not love any of us but my mother and me; and, being
+above all disguises, make me sensible that you do not oftener than I
+wish.--Ought I then to add force to your dislikes of those whom I wish
+you to like?--of my father especially; for he, alas! has some excuse
+for his impatience of contradiction. He is not naturally an ill-tempered
+man; and in his person and air, and in his conversation too, when not
+under the torture of a gouty paroxysm, every body distinguishes the
+gentleman born and educated.
+
+Our sex perhaps must expect to bear a little--uncourtliness shall I call
+it?--from the husband whom as the lover they let know the preference
+their hearts gave him to all other men.--Say what they will of
+generosity being a manly virtue; but upon my word, my dear, I have ever
+yet observed, that it is not to be met with in that sex one time in ten
+that it is to be found in ours.--But my father was soured by the cruel
+distemper I have named; which seized him all at once in the very prime
+of life, in so violent a manner as to take from the most active of
+minds, as his was, all power of activity, and that in all appearance for
+life.--It imprisoned, as I may say, his lively spirits in himself,
+and turned the edge of them against his own peace; his extraordinary
+prosperity adding to his impatiency. Those, I believe, who want the
+fewest earthly blessings, most regret that they want any.
+
+But my brother! What excuse can be made for his haughty and morose
+temper? He is really, my dear, I am sorry to have occasion to say it, an
+ill-temper'd young man; and treats my mother sometimes--Indeed he is not
+dutiful.--But, possessing every thing, he has the vice of age, mingled
+with the ambition of youth, and enjoys nothing--but his own haughtiness
+and ill-temper, I was going to say.--Yet again am I adding force to your
+dislikes of some of us.--Once, my dear, it was perhaps in your power to
+have moulded him as you pleased.--Could you have been my sister!--Then
+had I friend in a sister.--But no wonder that he does not love you now;
+who could nip in the bud, and that with a disdain, let me say, too
+much of kin to his haughtiness, a passion that would not have wanted
+a fervour worthy of the object; and which possibly would have made him
+worthy.
+
+But no more of this. I will prosecute my former intention in my next;
+which I will sit down to as soon as breakfast is over; dispatching this
+by the messenger whom you have so kindly sent to inquire after us on my
+silence. Mean time, I am,
+
+
+Your most affectionate and obliged friend and servant, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE HARLOWE-PLACE, JAN. 20.
+
+
+I will now resume my narrative of proceedings here.--My brother being
+in a good way, although you may be sure that his resentments are rather
+heightened than abated by the galling disgrace he has received, my
+friends (my father and uncles, however, if not my brother and sister)
+begin to think that I have been treated unkindly. My mother been so good
+as to tell me this since I sent away my last.
+
+Nevertheless I believe they all think that I receive letters from Mr.
+Lovelace. But Lord M. being inclined rather to support than to blame his
+nephew, they seem to be so much afraid of Mr. Lovelace, that they do
+not put it to me whether I do or not; conniving on the contrary, as it
+should seem, at the only method left to allay the vehemence of a spirit
+which they have so much provoked: For he still insists upon satisfaction
+from my uncles; and this possibly (for he wants not art) as the best way
+to be introduced again with some advantage into our family. And indeed
+my aunt Hervey has put it to my mother, whether it were not best to
+prevail upon my brother to take a turn to his Yorkshire estate (which he
+was intending to do before) and to stay there till all is blown over.
+
+But this is very far from being his intention: For he has already
+began to hint again, that he shall never be easy or satisfied till I
+am married; and, finding neither Mr. Symmes nor Mr. Mullins will be
+accepted, has proposed Mr. Wyerley once more, on the score of his
+great passion for me. This I have again rejected; and but yesterday he
+mentioned one who has applied to him by letter, making high offers. This
+is Mr. Solmes; Rich Solmes you know they call him. But this application
+has not met with the attention of one single soul.
+
+If none of his schemes of getting me married take effect, he has
+thoughts, I am told, of proposing to me to go to Scotland, that as the
+compliment is, I may put his house there in such order as our own is in.
+But this my mother intends to oppose for her own sake; because having
+relieved her, as she is pleased to say, of the household cares (for
+which my sister, you know, has no turn) they must again devolve upon her
+if I go. And if she did not oppose it, I should; for, believe me, I have
+no mind to be his housekeeper; and I am sure, were I to go with him, I
+should be treated rather as a servant than a sister:--perhaps, not the
+better because I am his sister. And if Mr. Lovelace should follow me,
+things might be worse than they are now.
+
+But I have besought my mother, who is apprehensive of Mr. Lovelace's
+visits, and for fear of whom my uncles never stir out without arms and
+armed servants (my brother also being near well enough to go abroad),
+to procure me permission to be your guest for a fortnight, or so.--Will
+your mother, think you, my dear, give me leave?
+
+I dare not ask to go to my dairy-house, as my good grandfather would
+call it: for I am now afraid of being thought to have a wish to enjoy
+that independence to which his will has entitled me: and as matter are
+situated, such a wish would be imputed to my regard to the man to whom
+they have now so great an antipathy. And indeed could I be as easy and
+happy here as I used to be, I would defy that man and all his sex; and
+never repent that I have given the power of my fortune into my father's
+hands.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Just now, my mother has rejoiced me with the news that my requested
+permission is granted. Every one thinks it best that I should go to you,
+except my brother. But he was told, that he must not expect to rule in
+every thing. I am to be sent for into the great parlour, where are my
+two uncles and my aunt Hervey, and to be acquainted with this concession
+in form.
+
+You know, my dear, that there is a good deal of solemnity among us.
+But never was there a family more united in its different branches than
+ours. Our uncles consider us as their own children, and declare that it
+is for our sakes that they live single. So that they are advised
+with upon every article relating to us, or that may affect us. It is
+therefore the less wonder, at a time when they understand that Mr.
+Lovelace is determined to pay us an amicable visit, as he calls it, (but
+which I am sure cannot end amicably,) that they should both be consulted
+upon the permission I had desired to attend you.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I will acquaint you with what passed at the general leave given me to be
+your guest. And yet I know that you will not love my brother the better
+for my communication. But I am angry with him myself, and cannot help
+it. And besides, it is proper to let you know the terms I go upon, and
+their motives for permitting me to go.
+
+Clary, said my mother, as soon as I entered the great parlour, your
+request to go to Miss Howe's for a few days has been taken into
+consideration, and granted--
+
+Much against my liking, I assure you, said my brother, rudely
+interrupting her.
+
+Son James! said my father, and knit his brows.
+
+He was not daunted. His arm was in a sling. He often has the mean art
+to look upon that, when any thing is hinted that may be supposed to lead
+toward the least favour to or reconciliation with Mr. Lovelace.--Let the
+girl then [I am often the girl with him] be prohibited seeing that vile
+libertine.
+
+Nobody spoke.
+
+Do you hear, sister Clary? taking their silence for approbation of what
+he had dictated; you are not to receive visits from Lord M.'s nephew.
+
+Every one still remained silent.
+
+Do you so understand the license you have, Miss? interrogated he.
+
+I would be glad, Sir, said I, to understand that you are my
+brother;--and that you would understand that you are only my brother.
+
+O the fond, fond heart! with a sneer of insult, lifting up his hands.
+
+Sir, said I, to my father, to your justice I appeal: If I have deserved
+reflection, let me be not spared. But if I am to be answerable for the
+rashness--
+
+No more!--No more of either side, said my father. You are not to receive
+the visits of that Lovelace, though.--Nor are you, son James, to reflect
+upon your sister. She is a worthy child.
+
+Sir, I have done, replied he:--and yet I have her honour at heart, as
+much as the honour of the rest of the family.
+
+And hence, Sir, retorted I, your unbrotherly reflections upon me?
+
+Well, but you observe, Miss, said he, that it is not I, but your father,
+that tells you, that you are not to receive the visits of that Lovelace.
+
+Cousin Harlowe, said my aunt Hervey, allow me to say, that my cousin
+Clary's prudence may be confided in.
+
+I am convinced it may, joined my mother.
+
+But, aunt, but, madam (put in my sister) there is no hurt, I presume, in
+letting my sister know the condition she goes to Miss Howe upon; since,
+if he gets a nack of visiting her there--
+
+You may be sure, interrupted my uncle Harlowe, he will endeavour to see
+her there.
+
+So would such an impudent man here, said my uncle Antony: and 'tis
+better done there than here.
+
+Better no where, said my father.--I command you (turning to me) on pain
+of displeasure, that you see him not at all.
+
+I will not, Sir, in any way of encouragement, I do assure you: not at
+all, if I can properly avoid it.
+
+You know with what indifference, said my mother, she has hitherto seen
+him.--Her prudence may be trusted to, as my sister Hervey says.
+
+With what appa--rent indifference, drawled my brother.
+
+Son James! said my father sternly.
+
+I have done, Sir, said he. But again, in a provoking manner, he reminded
+me of the prohibition.
+
+Thus ended the conference.
+
+Will you engage, my dear, that the hated man shall not come near your
+house?--But what an inconsistence is this, when they consent to my
+going, thinking his visits here no otherwise to be avoided!--But if he
+does come, I charge you never to leave us alone together.
+
+As I have no reason to doubt a welcome from your good mother, I will put
+every thing in order here, and be with you in two or three days.
+
+Mean time, I am Your most affectionate and obliged, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE [AFTER HER RETURN FROM HER.]
+HARLOWE-PLACE, FEB. 20.
+
+
+I beg your excuse for not writing sooner. Alas! my dear, I have sad
+prospects before me! My brother and sister have succeeded in all their
+views. They have found out another lover for me; an hideous one!--Yet
+he is encouraged by every body. No wonder that I was ordered home so
+suddenly. At an hour's warning!--No other notice, you know, than what
+was brought with the chariot that was to carry me back.--It was for
+fear, as I have been informed [an unworthy fear!] that I should have
+entered into any concert with Mr. Lovelace had I known their motive for
+commanding me home; apprehending, 'tis evident, that I should dislike
+the man they had to propose to me.
+
+And well might they apprehend so:--For who do you think he is?--No
+other than that Solmes--Could you have believed it?--And they are all
+determined too; my mother with the rest!--Dear, dear excellence! how
+could she be thus brought over, when I am assured, that on his first
+being proposed she was pleased to say, That had Mr. Solmes the Indies
+in possession, and would endow me with them, she should not think him
+deserving of her Clarissa!
+
+The reception I met with at my return, so different from what I used to
+meet with on every little absence [and now I had been from them three
+weeks], convinced me that I was to suffer for the happiness I had had
+in your company and conversation for that most agreeable period. I will
+give you an account of it.
+
+My brother met me at the door, and gave me his hand when I stepped out
+of the chariot. He bowed very low: pray, Miss, favour me.--I thought it
+in good humour; but found it afterwards mock respect: and so he led
+me in great form, I prattling all the way, inquiring of every body's
+health, (although I was so soon to see them, and there was hardly time
+for answers,) into the great parlour; where were my father, mother, my
+two uncles, and sister.
+
+I was struck all of a heap as soon as I entered, to see a solemnity
+which I had been so little used to on the like occasions in the
+countenance of every dear relation. They all kept their seats. I ran
+to my father, and kneeled: then to my mother: and met from both a cold
+salute: From my father a blessing but half pronounced: My mother indeed
+called me child; but embraced me not with her usual indulgent ardour.
+
+After I had paid my duty to my uncles, and my compliments to my sister,
+which she received with solemn and stiff form, I was bid to sit down.
+But my heart was full: and I said it became me to stand, if I could
+stand, upon a reception so awful and unusual. I was forced to turn my
+face from them, and pull out my handkerchief.
+
+My unbrotherly accuser hereupon stood forth, and charged me with having
+received no less than five or six visits at Miss Howe's from the
+man they had all so much reason to hate [that was the expression];
+notwithstanding the commands I had had to the contrary. And he bid me
+deny it if I could.
+
+I had never been used, I said, to deny the truth, nor would I now. I
+owned I had in the three weeks passed seen the person I presumed he
+meant oftener than five or six times [Pray hear me, brother, said I; for
+he was going to flame out], but he always asked for Mrs. or Miss Howe,
+when he came.
+
+I proceeded, that I had reason to believe, that both Mrs. Howe and Miss,
+as matters stood, would much rather have excused his visits; but they
+had more than once apologized, that having not the same reason my papa
+had to forbid him their house, his rank and fortune entitled him to
+civility.
+
+You see, my dear, I made not the pleas I might have made.
+
+My brother seemed ready to give a loose to his passion: My father put
+on the countenance which always portends a gathering storm: My uncles
+mutteringly whispered: And my sister aggravatingly held up her hands.
+While I begged to be heard out:--And my mother said, let the child, that
+was her kind word, be heard.
+
+I hoped, I said, there was no harm done: that it became not me to
+prescribe to Mrs. or Miss Howe who should be their visitors: that Mrs.
+Howe was always diverted with the raillery that passed between Miss and
+him: that I had no reason to challenge her guest for my visitor, as I
+should seem to have done had I refused to go into their company when he
+was with them: that I had never seen him out of the presence of one or
+both of those ladies; and had signified to him once, on his urging a
+few moments' private conversation with me, that, unless a reconciliation
+were effected between my family and his, he must not expect that I would
+countenance his visits, much less give him an opportunity of that sort.
+
+I told him further, that Miss Howe so well understood my mind, that she
+never left me a moment while Mr. Lovelace was there: that when he came,
+if I was not below in the parlour, I would not suffer myself to be
+called to him: although I thought it would be an affectation which would
+give him an advantage rather than the contrary, if I had left company
+when he came in; or refused to enter into it when I found he would stay
+any time.
+
+My brother heard me out with such a kind of impatience as shewed he was
+resolved to be dissatisfied with me, say what I would. The rest, as the
+event has proved, behaved as if they would have been satisfied, had
+they not further points to carry by intimidating me. All this made it
+evident, as I mentioned above, that they themselves expected not my
+voluntary compliance; and was a tacit confession of the disagreeableness
+of the person they had to propose.
+
+I was no sooner silent than my brother swore, although in my father's
+presence, (swore, unchecked either by eye or countenance,) That for his
+part, he would never be reconciled to that libertine: and that he would
+renounce me for a sister, if I encouraged the addresses of a man so
+obnoxious to them all.
+
+A man who had like to have been my brother's murderer, my sister said,
+with a face even bursting with restraint of passion.
+
+The poor Bella has, you know, a plump high-fed face, if I may be allowed
+the expression. You, I know, will forgive me for this liberty of speech
+sooner than I can forgive myself: Yet how can one be such a reptile as
+not to turn when trampled upon!
+
+My father, with vehemence both of action and voice [my father has, you
+know, a terrible voice when he is angry] told me that I had met with too
+much indulgence in being allowed to refuse this gentleman, and the other
+gentleman,; and it was now his turn to be obeyed!
+
+Very true, my mother said:--and hoped his will would not now be disputed
+by a child so favoured.
+
+To shew they were all of a sentiment, my uncle Harlowe said, he hoped
+his beloved niece only wanted to know her father's will, to obey it.
+
+And my uncle Antony, in his rougher manner, added, that surely I would
+not give them reason to apprehend, that I thought my grandfather's
+favour to me had made me independent of them all.--If I did, he would
+tell me, the will could be set aside, and should.
+
+I was astonished, you must needs think.--Whose addresses now, thought I,
+is this treatment preparative to?--Mr. Wyerley's again?--or whose? And
+then, as high comparisons, where self is concerned, sooner than low,
+come into young people's heads; be it for whom it will, this is wooing
+as the English did for the heiress of Scotland in the time of Edward
+the Sixth. But that it could be for Solmes, how should it enter into my
+head?
+
+I did not know, I said, that I had given occasion for this harshness.
+I hoped I should always have a just sense of every one's favour to me,
+superadded to the duty I owed as a daughter and a niece: but that I was
+so much surprised at a reception so unusual and unexpected, that I hoped
+my papa and mamma would give me leave to retire, in order to recollect
+myself.
+
+No one gainsaying, I made my silent compliments, and withdrew;--leaving
+my brother and sister, as I thought, pleased; and as if they wanted to
+congratulate each other on having occasioned so severe a beginning to be
+made with me.
+
+I went up to my chamber, and there with my faithful Hannah deplored the
+determined face which the new proposal it was plain they had to make me
+wore.
+
+I had not recovered myself when I was sent for down to tea. I begged
+my maid to be excused attending; but on the repeated command, went down
+with as much cheerfulness as I could assume; and had a new fault to
+clear myself of: for my brother, so pregnant a thing is determined
+ill-will, by intimations equally rude and intelligible, charged my
+desire of being excused coming down, to sullens, because a certain
+person had been spoken against, upon whom, as he supposed, my fancy ran.
+
+I could easily answer you, Sir, said I, as such a reflection deserves:
+but I forbear. If I do not find a brother in you, you shall have a
+sister in me.
+
+Pretty meekness! Bella whisperingly said; looking at my brother, and
+lifting up her lip in contempt.
+
+He, with an imperious air, bid me deserve his love, and I should be sure
+to have it.
+
+As we sat, my mother, in her admirable manner, expatiated upon brotherly
+and sisterly love; indulgently blamed my brother and sister for having
+taken up displeasure too lightly against me; and politically, if I may
+say so, answered for my obedience to my father's will.--The it would be
+all well, my father was pleased to say: Then they should dote upon me,
+was my brother's expression: Love me as well as ever, was my sister's:
+And my uncles, That I then should be the pride of their hearts.--But,
+alas! what a forfeiture of all these must I make!
+
+This was the reception I had on my return from you.
+
+Mr. Solmes came in before we had done tea. My uncle Antony presented
+him to me, as a gentleman he had a particular friendship for. My uncle
+Harlowe in terms equally favourable for him. My father said, Mr. Solmes
+is my friend, Clarissa Harlowe. My mother looked at him, and looked at
+me, now-and-then, as he sat near me, I thought with concern.--I at her,
+with eyes appealing for pity. At him, when I could glance at him, with
+disgust little short of affrightment. While my brother and sister Mr.
+Solmes'd him, and Sirr'd--yet such a wretch!--But I will at present only
+add, My humble thanks and duty to your honoured mother (to whom I will
+particularly write, to express the grateful sense I have of her goodness
+to me); and that I am
+
+Your ever obliged, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE FEB. 24.
+
+
+They drive on here at a furious rate. The man lives here, I think.
+He courts them, and is more and more a favourite. Such terms, such
+settlements! That's the cry.
+
+O my dear, that I had not reason to deplore the family fault, immensely
+rich as they all are! But this I may the more unreservedly say to you,
+as we have often joined in the same concern: I, for a father and uncles;
+you, for a mother; in every other respect, faultless.
+
+Hitherto, I seem to be delivered over to my brother, who pretends as
+great a love to me as ever.
+
+You may believe I have been very sincere with him. But he affects
+to rally me, and not to believe it possible, that one so dutiful and
+discreet as his sister Clary can resolve to disoblige all her friends.
+
+Indeed, I tremble at the prospect before me; for it is evident that they
+are strangely determined.
+
+My father and mother industriously avoid giving me opportunity of
+speaking to them alone. They ask not for my approbation, intended, as it
+should seem, to suppose me into their will. And with them I shall hope
+to prevail, or with nobody. They have not the interest in compelling me,
+as my brother and sister have: I say less therefore to them, reserving
+my whole force for an audience of my father, if he will permit me a
+patient ear. How difficult is it, my dear, to give a negative where both
+duty and inclination join to make one wish to oblige!
+
+I have already stood the shock of three of this man's particular visits,
+besides my share in his more general ones; and find it is impossible
+I should ever endure him. He has but a very ordinary share of
+understanding; is very illiterate; knows nothing but the value of
+estates, and how to improve them, and what belongs to land-jobbing and
+husbandry. Yet I am as one stupid, I think. They have begun so cruelly
+with me, that I have not spirit enough to assert my own negative.
+
+They had endeavoured it seems to influence my good Mrs. Norton before I
+came home--so intent are they to carry their point! And her opinion
+not being to their liking, she has been told that she would do well to
+decline visiting here for the present: yet she is the person of all the
+world, next to my mother, the most likely to prevail upon me, were the
+measures they are engaged in reasonable measures, or such as she could
+think so.
+
+My aunt likewise having said that she did not think her niece could ever
+be brought to like Mr. Solmes, has been obliged to learn another lesson.
+
+I am to have a visit from her to-morrow. And, since I have refused so
+much as to hear from my brother and sister what the noble settlements
+are to be, she is to acquaint me with the particulars; and to receive
+from me my determination: for my father, I am told, will not have
+patience but to suppose that I shall stand in opposition to his will.
+
+Mean time it has been signified to me, that it will be acceptable if I
+do not think of going to church next Sunday.
+
+The same signification was made for me last Sunday; and I obeyed. They
+are apprehensive that Mr. Lovelace will be there with design to come
+home with me.
+
+Help me, dear Miss Howe, to a little of your charming spirit: I never
+more wanted it.
+
+The man, this Solmes, you may suppose, has no reason to boast of his
+progress with me. He has not the sense to say any thing to the purpose.
+His courtship indeed is to them; and my brother pretends to court me
+as his proxy, truly!--I utterly, to my brother, reject his address; but
+thinking a person, so well received and recommended by all my family,
+entitled to good manners, all I say against him is affectedly attributed
+to coyness: and he, not being sensible of his own imperfections,
+believes that my avoiding him when I can, and the reserves I express,
+are owing to nothing else: for, as I said, all his courtship is to
+them; and I have no opportunity of saying no, to one who asks me not the
+question. And so, with an air of mannish superiority, he seems rather to
+pity the bashful girl, than to apprehend that he shall not succeed.
+
+
+FEBRUARY 25.
+
+
+I have had the expected conference with my aunt.
+
+I have been obliged to hear the man's proposals from her; and have been
+told also what their motives are for espousing his interest with so much
+warmth. I am even loth to mention how equally unjust it is for him to
+make such offers, or for those I am bound to reverence to accept of
+them. I hate him more than before. One great estate is already obtained
+at the expense of the relations to it, though distant relations; my
+brother's, I mean, by his godmother: and this has given the hope,
+however chimerical that hope, of procuring others; and that my own at
+least may revert to the family. And yet, in my opinion, the world is
+but one great family. Originally it was so. What then is this narrow
+selfishness that reigns in us, but relationship remembered against
+relationship forgot?
+
+But here, upon my absolute refusal of him upon any terms, have I had
+a signification made me that wounds me to the heart. How can I tell it
+you? Yet I must. It is, my dear, that I must not for a month to come, or
+till license obtained, correspond with any body out of the house.
+
+My brother, upon my aunt's report, (made, however, as I am informed,
+in the gentlest manner, and even giving remote hopes, which she had no
+commission from me to give,) brought me, in authoritative terms, the
+prohibition.
+
+Not to Miss Howe? said I.
+
+No, not to Miss Howe, Madam, tauntingly: for have you not acknowledged,
+that Lovelace is a favourite there?
+
+See, my dear Miss Howe--!
+
+And do you think, Brother, this is the way--
+
+Do you look to that.--But your letters will be stopt, I can tell
+you.--And away he flung.
+
+My sister came to me soon after--Sister Clary, you are going on in a
+fine way, I understand. But as there are people who are supposed to
+harden you against your duty, I am to tell you, that it will be taken
+well if you avoid visits or visitings for a week or two till further
+order.
+
+Can this be from those who have authority--
+
+Ask them; ask them, child, with a twirl of her finger.--I have delivered
+my message. Your father will be obeyed. He is willing to hope you to be
+all obedience, and would prevent all incitements to refractoriness.
+
+I know my duty, said I; and hope I shall not find impossible condition
+annexed to it.
+
+A pert young creature, vain and conceited, she called me. I was the only
+judge, in my own wise opinion, of what was right and fit. She, for her
+part, had long seen into my specious ways: and now I should shew every
+body what I was at bottom.
+
+Dear Bella! said I, hands and eyes lifted up--why all this?--Dear, dear
+Bella, why--
+
+None of your dear, dear Bella's to me.--I tell you, I see through your
+witchcrafts [that was her strange word]. And away she flung; adding, as
+she went, and so will every body else very quickly, I dare say.
+
+Bless me, said I to myself, what a sister have I!--How have I deserved
+this?
+
+Then I again regretted my grandfather's too distinguishing goodness to
+me.
+
+
+FEB. 25, IN THE EVENING.
+
+
+What my brother and sister have said against me I cannot tell:--but I am
+in heavy disgrace with my father.
+
+I was sent for down to tea. I went with a very cheerful aspect: but had
+occasion soon to change it.
+
+Such a solemnity in every body's countenance!--My mother's eyes were
+fixed upon the tea-cups; and when she looked up, it was heavily, as if
+her eye-lids had weights upon them; and then not to me. My father sat
+half-aside in his elbow-chair, that his head might be turned from me:
+his hands clasped, and waving, as it were, up and down; his fingers,
+poor dear gentleman! in motion, as if angry to the very ends of them. My
+sister was swelling. My brother looked at me with scorn, having measured
+me, as I may say, with his eyes as I entered, from head to foot. My aunt
+was there, and looked upon me as if with kindness restrained, bending
+coldly to my compliment to her as she sat; and then cast an eye first on
+my brother, then on my sister, as if to give the reason [so I am willing
+to construe it] of her unusual stiffness.--Bless me, my dear! that they
+should choose to intimidate rather than invite a mind, till now, not
+thought either unpersuadable or ungenerous!
+
+I took my seat. Shall I make tea, Madam, to my mother?--I always used,
+you know, my dear, to make tea.
+
+No! a very short sentence, in one very short word, was the expressive
+answer. And she was pleased to take the canister in her own hand.
+
+My brother bid the footman, who attended, leave the room--I, he said,
+will pour out the water.
+
+My heart was up in my mouth. I did not know what to do with myself. What
+is to follow? thought I.
+
+Just after the second dish, out stept my mother--A word with you, sister
+Hervey! taking her in her hand. Presently my sister dropt away. Then my
+brother. So I was left alone with my father.
+
+He looked so very sternly, that my heart failed me as twice or thrice
+I would have addressed myself to him: nothing but solemn silence on all
+hands having passed before.
+
+At last, I asked, if it were his pleasure that I should pour him out
+another dish?
+
+He answered me with the same angry monosyllable, which I had received
+from my mother before; and then arose, and walked about the room. I
+arose too, with intent to throw myself at his feet; but was too much
+overawed by his sternness, even to make such an expression of my duty to
+him as my heart overflowed with.
+
+At last, as he supported himself, because of his gout, on the back of a
+chair, I took a little more courage; and approaching him, besought him
+to acquaint me in what I had offended him?
+
+He turned from me, and in a strong voice, Clarissa Harlowe, said he,
+know that I will be obeyed.
+
+God forbid, Sir, that you should not!--I have never yet opposed your
+will--
+
+Nor I your whimsies, Clarissa Harlowe, interrupted he.--Don't let me
+run the fate of all who shew indulgence to your sex; to be the more
+contradicted for mine to you.
+
+My father, you know, my dear, has not (any more than my brother) a kind
+opinion of our sex; although there is not a more condescending wife in
+the world than my mother.
+
+I was going to make protestations of duty--No protestations, girl! No
+words! I will not be prated to! I will be obeyed! I have no child, I
+will have no child, but an obedient one.
+
+Sir, you never had reason, I hope--
+
+Tell me not what I never had, but what I have, and what I shall have.
+
+Good Sir, be pleased to hear me--My brother and sister, I fear--
+
+Your brother and sister shall not be spoken against, girl!--They have a
+just concern for the honour of my family.
+
+And I hope, Sir--
+
+Hope nothing.--Tell me not of hopes, but of facts. I ask nothing of you
+but what is in your power to comply with, and what it is your duty to
+comply with.
+
+Then, Sir, I will comply with it--But yet I hope from your goodness--
+
+No expostulations! No but's, girl! No qualifyings! I will be obeyed, I
+tell you; and cheerfully too!--or you are no child of mine!
+
+I wept.
+
+Let me beseech you, my dear and ever-honoured Papa, (and I dropt down
+on my knees,) that I may have only yours and my mamma's will, and not my
+brother's, to obey.
+
+I was going on; but he was pleased to withdraw, leaving me on the floor;
+saying, That he would not hear me thus by subtilty and cunning aiming to
+distinguish away my duty: repeating, that he would be obeyed.
+
+My heart is too full;--so full, that it may endanger my duty, were I
+to try to unburden it to you on this occasion: so I will lay down my
+pen.--But can--Yet positively, I will lay down my pen--!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE FEB. 26, IN THE MORNING.
+
+
+My aunt, who staid here last night, made me a visit this morning as
+soon as it was light. She tells me, that I was left alone with my
+father yesterday on purpose that he might talk with me on my expected
+obedience; but that he owned he was put beside his purpose by reflecting
+on something my brother had told him in my disfavour, and by his
+impatience but to suppose, that such a gentle spirit as mine had
+hitherto seemed to be, should presume to dispute his will in a point
+where the advantage of the whole family was to be so greatly promoted by
+my compliance.
+
+I find, by a few words which dropt unawares from my aunt, that they have
+all an absolute dependence upon what they suppose to be meekness in my
+temper. But in this they may be mistaken; for I verily think, upon a
+strict examination of myself, that I have almost as much in me of my
+father's as of my mother's family.
+
+My uncle Harlowe it seems is against driving me upon extremities: But
+my brother has engaged, that the regard I have for my reputation, and
+my principles, will bring me round to my duty; that's the expression.
+Perhaps I shall have reason to wish I had not known this.
+
+My aunt advises me to submit for the present to the interdicts they
+have laid me under; and indeed to encourage Mr. Solmes's address. I have
+absolutely refused the latter, let what will (as I have told her) be the
+consequence. The visiting prohibition I will conform to. But as to that
+of not corresponding with you, nothing but the menace that our letters
+shall be intercepted, can engage my observation of it.
+
+She believes that this order is from my father, and that my mother
+has not been consulted upon it. She says, that it is given, as she has
+reason think, purely in consideration to me, lest I should mortally
+offend him; and this from the incitements of other people (meaning you
+and Miss Lloyd, I make no doubt) rather than by my own will. For still,
+as she tells me, he speaks kind and praiseful things of me.
+
+Here is clemency! Here is indulgence!--And so it is, to prevent a
+headstrong child, as a good prince would wish to deter disaffected
+subjects, from running into rebellion, and so forfeiting every thing!
+But this is allowing to the young-man's wisdom of my brother; a plotter
+without a head, and a brother without a heart!
+
+How happy might I have been with any other brother in the world but
+James Harlowe; and with any other sister but his sister! Wonder not, my
+dear, that I, who used to chide you for these sort of liberties with my
+relations, now am more undutiful than you ever was unkind. I cannot bear
+the thought of being deprived of the principal pleasure of my life; for
+such is your conversation by person and by letter. And who, besides, can
+bear to be made the dupe of such low cunning, operating with such high
+and arrogant passions?
+
+But can you, my dear Miss Howe, condescend to carry on a private
+correspondence with me?--If you can, there is one way I have thought of,
+by which it may be done.
+
+You must remember the Green Lane, as we call it, that runs by the side
+of the wood-house and poultry-yard where I keep my bantams, pheasants,
+and pea-hens, which generally engage my notice twice a day; the more
+my favourites because they were my grandfather's, and recommended to my
+care by him; and therefore brought hither from my Dairy-house since his
+death.
+
+The lane is lower than the floor of the wood-house; and, in the side of
+the wood-house, the boards are rotted away down to the floor for half an
+ell together in several places. Hannah can step into the lane, and make
+a mark with chalk where a letter or parcel may be pushed in, under some
+sticks; which may be so managed as to be an unsuspected cover for the
+written deposits from either.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I have been just now to look at the place, and find it will answer. So
+your faithful Robert may, without coming near the house, and as only
+passing through the Green Lame which leads to two or three farm-houses
+[out of livery if you please] very easily take from thence my letters
+and deposit yours.
+
+This place is the more convenient, because it is seldom resorted to
+but by myself or Hannah, on the above-mentioned account; for it is the
+general store-house for firing; the wood for constant use being nearer
+the house.
+
+One corner of this being separated off for the roosting-place of my
+little poultry, either she or I shall never want a pretence to go
+thither.
+
+Try, my dear, the success of a letter this way; and give me your opinion
+and advice what to do in this disgraceful situation, as I cannot but
+call it; and what you think of my prospects; and what you would do in my
+case.
+
+But before-hand I will tell you, that your advice must not run in favour
+of this Solmes: and yet it is very likely they will endeavour to engage
+your mother, in order to induce you, who have such an influence over me,
+to favour him.
+
+Yet, on second thoughts, if you incline to that side of the question,
+I would have you write your whole mind. Determined as I think I am, and
+cannot help it, I would at least give a patient hearing to what may be
+said on the other side. For my regards are not so much engaged [upon my
+word they are not; I know not myself if they be] to another person as
+some of my friends suppose; and as you, giving way to your lively vein,
+upon his last visits, affected to suppose. What preferable favour I
+may have for him to any other person, is owing more to the usage he has
+received, and for my sake borne, than to any personal consideration.
+
+I write a few lines of grateful acknowledgement to your good mother for
+her favours to me in the late happy period. I fear I shall never know
+such another. I hope she will forgive me, that I did not write sooner.
+
+The bearer, if suspected and examined, is to produce that as the only
+one he carries.
+
+How do needless watchfulness and undue restraint produce artifice and
+contrivance! I should abhor these clandestine correspondences, were they
+not forced upon me. They have so mean, so low an appearance to myself,
+that I think I ought not to expect that you should take part in them.
+
+But why (as I have also expostulated with my aunt) must I be pushed
+into a state, which I have no wish to enter into, although I reverence
+it?--Why should not my brother, so many years older, and so earnest to
+see me engaged, be first engaged?--And why should not my sister be first
+provided for?
+
+But here I conclude these unavailing expostulations, with the assurance,
+that I am, and ever will be,
+
+Your affectionate, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X
+
+MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE FEB. 27
+
+
+What odd heads some people have!--Miss Clarissa Harlowe to be sacrificed
+in marriage to Mr. Roger Solmes!--Astonishing!
+
+I must not, you say, give my advice in favour of this man!--You now
+convince me, my dear, that you are nearer of kin than I thought you,
+to the family that could think of so preposterous a match, or you would
+never have had the least notion of my advising in his favour.
+
+Ask for his picture. You know I have a good hand at drawing an ugly
+likeness. But I'll see a little further first: for who knows what may
+happen, since matters are in such a train; and since you have not the
+courage to oppose so overwhelming a torrent?
+
+You ask me to help you to a little of my spirit. Are you in earnest?
+But it will not now, I doubt, do you service.--It will not sit naturally
+upon you. You are your mother's girl, think what you will; and have
+violent spirits to contend with. Alas! my dear, you should have borrowed
+some of mine a little sooner;--that is to say, before you had given the
+management of your estate into the hands of those who think they have a
+prior claim to it. What though a father's!--Has not the father two elder
+children?--And do they not both bear more of his stamp and image than
+you do?--Pray, my dear, call me not to account for this free question;
+lest your application of my meaning, on examination, prove to be as
+severe as that.
+
+Now I have launched out a little, indulge me one word more in the same
+strain--I will be decent, I promise you. I think you might have know,
+that Avarice and Envy are two passions that are not to be satisfied, the
+one by giving, the other by the envied person's continuing to deserve
+and excel.--Fuel, fuel both, all the world over, to flames insatiate and
+devouring.
+
+But since you ask for my opinion, you must tell me all you know or
+surmise of their inducements. And if you will not forbid me to make
+extracts from your letters for the entertainment of my aunt and cousin
+in the little island, who long to hear more of your affairs, it will be
+very obliging.
+
+But you are so tender of some people who have no tenderness for any body
+but themselves, that I must conjure you to speak out. Remember, that
+a friendship like ours admits of no reserves. You may trust my
+impartiality. It would be an affront to your own judgment, if you did
+not: For do you not ask my advice? And have you not taught me that
+friendship should never give a bias against justice?--Justify them,
+therefore, if you can. Let us see if there be any sense, whether
+sufficient reason or not in their choice. At present I cannot (and yet
+I know a good deal of your family) have any conception how all of them,
+your mother and your aunt Hervey in particular, can join with the rest
+against judgments given. As to some of the others, I cannot wonder at
+any thing they do, or attempt to do, where self is concerned.
+
+You ask, Why may not your brother be first engaged in wedlock? I'll tell
+you why: His temper and his arrogance are too well known to induce women
+he would aspire to, to receive his addresses, notwithstanding his great
+independent acquisitions, and still greater prospects. Let me tell you,
+my dear, those acquisitions have given him more pride than reputation.
+To me he is the most intolerable creature that I ever conversed with.
+The treatment you blame, he merited from one whom he addressed with the
+air of a person who presumes that he is about to confer a favour, rather
+than to receive one. I ever loved to mortify proud and insolent spirits.
+What, think you, makes me bear Hickman near me, but that the man is
+humble, and knows and keeps his distance?
+
+As to your question, Why your elder sister may not be first provided
+for? I answer, Because she must have no man, but one who has a great and
+clear estate; that's one thing. Another is, Because she has a younger
+sister. Pray, my dear, be so good as to tell me, What man of a great and
+clear estate would think of that eldest sister, while the younger were
+single?
+
+You are all too rich to be happy, child. For must not each of you, by
+the constitutions of your family, marry to be still richer? People who
+know in what their main excellence consists, are not to be blamed (are
+they) for cultivating and improving what they think most valuable?--Is
+true happiness any part of your family view?--So far from it, that none
+of your family but yourself could be happy were they not rich. So let
+them fret on, grumble and grudge, and accumulate; and wondering what
+ails them that they have not happiness when they have riches, think the
+cause is want of more; and so go on heaping up, till Death, as greedy an
+accumulator as themselves, gathers them into his garner.
+
+Well then once more I say, do you, my dear, tell me what you know of
+their avowed and general motives; and I will tell you more than you will
+tell me of their failings! Your aunt Hervey, you say,* has told you: Why
+must I ask you to let me know them, when you condescend to ask my advice
+on the occasion?
+
+
+    * See Letter VIII.
+
+
+That they prohibit your corresponding with me, is a wisdom I neither
+wonder at, nor blame them for: since it is an evidence to me, that they
+know their own folly: And if they do, is it strange that they should be
+afraid to trust one another's judgment upon it?
+
+I am glad you have found out a way to correspond with me. I approve
+it much. I shall more, if this first trial of it prove successful. But
+should it not, and should it fall into their hands, it would not concern
+me but for your sake.
+
+We have heard before you wrote, that all was not right between your
+relations and you at your coming home: that Mr. Solmes visited you, and
+that with a prospect of success. But I concluded the mistake lay in the
+person; and that his address was to Miss Arabella. And indeed had she
+been as good-natured as your plump ones generally are, I should have
+thought her too good for him by half. This must certainly be the thing,
+thought I; and my beloved friend is sent for to advise and assist in her
+nuptial preparations. Who knows, said I to my mother, but that when
+the man has thrown aside his yellow full-buckled peruke, and his
+broad-brimmed beaver (both of which I suppose were Sir Oliver's best
+of long standing) he may cut a tolerable figure dangling to church
+with Miss Bell!--The woman, as she observes, should excel the man in
+features: and where can she match so well for a foil?
+
+I indulged this surmise against rumour, because I could not believe that
+the absurdest people in England could be so very absurd as to think of
+this man for you.
+
+We heard, moreover, that you received no visiters. I could assign no
+reason for this, except that the preparations for your sister were to be
+private, and the ceremony sudden, for fear this man should, as another
+man did, change his mind. Miss Lloyd and Miss Biddulph were with me to
+inquire what I knew of this; and of your not being in church, either
+morning or afternoon, the Sunday after your return from us; to the
+disappointment of a little hundred of your admirers, to use their words.
+It was easy for me to guess the reason to be what you confirm--their
+apprehensions that Lovelace would be there, and attempt to wait on you
+home.
+
+My mother takes very kindly your compliments in your letter to her. Her
+words upon reading it were, 'Miss Clarissa Harlowe is an admirable young
+lady: wherever she goes, she confers a favour: whomever she leaves, she
+fills with regret.'--And then a little comparative reflection--'O my
+Nancy, that you had a little of her sweet obligingness!'
+
+No matter. The praise was yours. You are me; and I enjoyed it. The more
+enjoyed it, because--Shall I tell you the truth?--Because I think myself
+as well as I am--were it but for this reason, that had I twenty brother
+James's, and twenty sister Bell's, not one of them, nor all of them
+joined together, would dare to treat me as yours presume to treat you.
+The person who will bear much shall have much to bear all the world
+through; it is your own sentiment,* grounded upon the strongest instance
+that can be given in your own family; though you have so little improved
+by it.
+
+
+     * Letter V.
+
+
+The result is this, that I am fitter for this world than you; you for
+the next than me:--that is the difference.--But long, long, for my sake,
+and for hundreds of sakes, may it be before you quit us for company more
+congenial to you and more worthy of you!
+
+I communicated to my mother the account you give of your strange
+reception; also what a horrid wretch they have found out for you; and
+the compulsory treatment they give you. It only set her on magnifying
+her lenity to me, on my tyrannical behaviour, as she will call it
+[mothers must have their way, you know, my dear] to the man whom she so
+warmly recommends, against whom it seems there can be no just exception;
+and expatiating upon the complaisance I owe her for her indulgence. So I
+believe I must communicate to her nothing farther--especially as I know
+she would condemn the correspondence between us, and that between you
+and Lovelace, as clandestine and undutiful proceedings, and divulge our
+secret besides; for duty implicit is her cry. And moreover she lends
+a pretty open ear to the preachments of that starch old bachelor your
+uncle Antony; and for an example to her daughter would be more careful
+how she takes your part, be the cause ever so just.
+
+Yet is this not the right policy neither. For people who allow nothing
+will be granted nothing: in other words, those who aim at carrying too
+many points will not be able to carry any.
+
+But can you divine, my dear, what the old preachment-making,
+plump-hearted soul, your uncle Antony, means by his frequent amblings
+hither?--There is such smirking and smiling between my mother and him!
+Such mutual praises of economy; and 'that is my way!'--and 'this I
+do!'--and 'I am glad it has your approbation, Sir!'--and 'you look into
+every thing, Madam!'--'Nothing would be done, if I did not!'--
+
+Such exclamations against servants! Such exaltings of self! And
+dear heart, and good lack!--and 'las a-day!--And now-and-then their
+conversation sinking into a whispering accent, if I come across
+them!--I'll tell you, my dear, I don't above half like it.
+
+Only that these old bachelors usually take as many years to resolve upon
+matrimony as they can reasonably expect to live, or I should be ready
+to fire upon his visits; and to recommend Mr. Hickman to my mother's
+acceptance, as a much more eligible man: for what he wants in years,
+he makes up in gravity; and if you will not chide me, I will say, that
+there is a primness in both (especially when the man has presumed too
+much with me upon my mother's favour for him, and is under discipline on
+that account) as make them seem near of kin: and then in contemplation
+of my sauciness, and what they both fear from it, they sigh away! and
+seem so mightily to compassionate each other, that if pity be but one
+remove from love, I am in no danger, while they are both in a great
+deal, and don't know it.
+
+Now, my dear, I know you will be upon me with your grave airs: so in for
+the lamb, as the saying is, in for the sheep; and do you yourself look
+about you; for I'll have a pull with you by way of being aforehand.
+Hannibal, we read, always advised to attack the Romans upon their own
+territories.
+
+You are pleased to say, and upon your word too! that your regards (a
+mighty quaint word for affections) are not so much engaged, as some
+of your friends suppose, to another person. What need you give one to
+imagine, my dear, that the last month or two has been a period extremely
+favourable to that other person, whom it has made an obliger of the
+niece for his patience with the uncles.
+
+But, to pass that by--so much engaged!--How much, my dear?--Shall I
+infer? Some of your friends suppose a great deal. You seem to own a
+little.
+
+Don't be angry. It is all fair: because you have not acknowledged to
+me that little. People I have heard you say, who affect secrets, always
+excite curiosity.
+
+But you proceed with a kind of drawback upon your averment, as if
+recollection had given you a doubt--you know not yourself, if they be
+[so much engaged]. Was it necessary to say this to me?--and to say
+it upon your word too?--But you know best.--Yet you don't neither,
+I believe. For a beginning love is acted by a subtle spirit; and
+oftentimes discovers itself to a by-stander, when the person possessed
+(why should I not call it possessed?) knows not it has such a demon.
+
+But further you say, what preferable favour you may have for him to any
+other person, is owing more to the usage he has received, and for your
+sake borne, than to any personal consideration.
+
+This is generously said. It is in character. But, O my friend, depend
+upon it, you are in danger. Depend upon it, whether you know it or not,
+you are a little in for't. Your native generosity and greatness of mind
+endanger you: all your friends, by fighting against him with
+impolitic violence, fight for him. And Lovelace, my life for yours,
+notwithstanding all his veneration and assiduities, has seen further
+than that veneration and those assiduities (so well calculated to your
+meridian) will let him own he has seen--has seen, in short, that his
+work is doing for him more effectually than he could do it for himself.
+And have you not before now said, that nothing is so penetrating as the
+eye of a lover who has vanity? And who says Lovelace wants vanity?
+
+In short, my dear, it is my opinion, and that from the easiness of his
+heart and behaviour, that he has seen more than I have seen; more than
+you think could be seen--more than I believe you yourself know, or else
+you would let me know it.
+
+Already, in order to restrain him from resenting the indignities he has
+received, and which are daily offered him, he has prevailed upon you to
+correspond with him privately. I know he has nothing to boast of from
+what you have written: but is not his inducing you to receive his
+letters, and to answer them, a great point gained? By your insisting
+that he should keep the correspondence private, it appears there is one
+secret which you do not wish the world should know: and he is master of
+that secret. He is indeed himself, as I may say, that secret! What an
+intimacy does this beget for the lover! How is it distancing the parent!
+
+Yet who, as things are situated, can blame you?--Your condescension has
+no doubt hitherto prevented great mischiefs. It must be continued,
+for the same reasons, while the cause remains. You are drawn in by
+a perverse fate against inclination: but custom, with such
+laudable purposes, will reconcile the inconveniency, and make an
+inclination.--And I would advise you (as you would wish to manage on an
+occasion so critical with that prudence which governs all your actions)
+not to be afraid of entering upon a close examination into the true
+springs and grounds of this your generosity to that happy man.
+
+It is my humble opinion, I tell you frankly, that on inquiry it will
+come out to be LOVE--don't start, my dear!--Has not your man himself had
+natural philosophy enough to observe already to your aunt Hervey, that
+love takes the deepest root in the steadiest minds? The deuce take his
+sly penetration, I was going to say; for this was six or seven weeks
+ago.
+
+I have been tinctured, you know. Nor on the coolest reflection, could
+I account how and when the jaundice began: but had been over head and
+ears, as the saying is, but for some of that advice from you, which I
+now return you. Yet my man was not half so--so what, my dear--to be sure
+Lovelace is a charming fellow. And were he only--but I will not make
+you glow, as you read--upon my word I will not.--Yet, my dear, don't you
+find at your heart somewhat unusual make it go throb, throb, throb, as
+you read just here?--If you do, don't be ashamed to own it--it is your
+generosity, my love, that's all.--But as the Roman augur said, Caesar,
+beware of the Ides of March!
+
+Adieu, my dearest friend.--Forgive, and very speedily, by the new found
+expedient, tell me that you forgive,
+
+Your ever-affectionate, ANNA HOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1.
+
+
+You both nettled and alarmed me, my dearest Miss Howe, by the concluding
+part of your last. At first reading it, I did not think it necessary,
+said I to myself, to guard against a critic, when I was writing to so
+dear a friend. But then recollecting myself, is there not more in it,
+said I, than the result of a vein so naturally lively? Surely I must
+have been guilty of an inadvertence. Let me enter into the close
+examination of myself which my beloved friend advises.
+
+I do so; and cannot own any of the glow, any of the throbs you
+mention.--Upon my word I will repeat, I cannot. And yet the passages in
+my letter, upon which you are so humourously severe, lay me fairly open
+to your agreeable raillery. I own they do. And I cannot tell what turn
+my mind had taken to dictate so oddly to my pen.
+
+But, pray now--is it saying so much, when one, who has no very
+particular regard to any man, says, there are some who are preferable to
+others? And is it blamable to say, they are the preferable, who are not
+well used by one's relations; yet dispense with that usage out of regard
+to one's self which they would otherwise resent? Mr. Lovelace, for
+instance, I may be allowed to say, is a man to be preferred to Mr.
+Solmes; and that I do prefer him to that man: but, surely, this may be
+said without its being a necessary consequence that I must be in love
+with him.
+
+Indeed I would not be in love with him, as it is called, for the world:
+First, because I have no opinion of his morals; and think it a fault in
+which our whole family (my brother excepted) has had a share, that he
+was permitted to visit us with a hope, which, however, being distant,
+did not, as I have observed heretofore,* entitle any of us to call
+him to account for such of his immoralities as came to our ears. Next,
+because I think him to be a vain man, capable of triumphing (secretly at
+least) over a person whose heart he thinks he has engaged. And, thirdly,
+because the assiduities and veneration which you impute to him, seem to
+carry an haughtiness in them, as if he thought his address had a merit
+in it, that would be more than an equivalent to a woman's love. In
+short, his very politeness, notwithstanding the advantages he must have
+had from his birth and education, appear to be constrained; and, with
+the most remarkable easy and genteel person, something, at times,
+seems to be behind in his manner that is too studiously kept in. Then,
+good-humoured as he is thought to be in the main to other people's
+servants, and this even to familiarity (although, as you have observed,
+a familiarity that has dignity in it not unbecoming to a man of quality)
+he is apt sometimes to break out into a passion with his own: An oath
+or a curse follows, and such looks from those servants as plainly shew
+terror, and that they should have fared worse had they not been in my
+hearing: with a confirmation in the master's looks of a surmise too well
+justified.
+
+
+     * Letter III.
+
+
+Indeed, my dear, THIS man is not THE man. I have great objections to
+him. My heart throbs not after him. I glow not, but with indignation
+against myself for having given room for such an imputation. But you
+must not, my dearest friend, construe common gratitude into love. I
+cannot bear that you should. But if ever I should have the misfortune to
+think it love, I promise you upon my word, which is the same as upon my
+honour, that I will acquaint you with it.
+
+You bid me to tell you very speedily, and by the new-found expedient,
+that I am not displeased with you for your agreeable raillery: I
+dispatch this therefore immediately, postponing to my next the account
+of the inducements which my friends have to promote with so much
+earnestness the address of Mr. Solmes.
+
+Be satisfied, my dear, mean time, that I am not displeased with you:
+indeed I am not. On the contrary, I give you my hearty thanks for your
+friendly premonitions; and I charge you (as I have often done) that if
+you observe any thing in me so very faulty as would require from you
+to others in my behalf the palliation of friendly and partial love, you
+acquaint me with it: for methinks I would so conduct myself as not to
+give reason even for an adversary to censure me; and how shall so weak
+and so young a creature avoid the censure of such, if my friend will not
+hold a looking-glass before me to let me see my imperfections?
+
+Judge me, then, my dear, as any indifferent person (knowing what you
+know of me) would do. I may be at first be a little pained; may glow a
+little perhaps to be found less worthy of your friendship than I wish
+to be; but assure yourself, that your kind correction will give me
+reflection that shall amend me. If it do not, you will have a fault to
+accuse me of, that will be utterly inexcusable: a fault, let me add,
+that should you not accuse me of it (if in your opinion I am guilty) you
+will not be so much, so warmly, my friend as I am yours; since I have
+never spared you on the like occasions.
+
+Here I break off to begin another letter to you, with the assurance,
+mean time, that I am, and ever will be,
+
+Your equally affectionate and grateful, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII
+
+MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 2.
+
+
+Indeed you would not be in love with him for the world!--Your servant,
+my dear. Nor would I have you. For, I think, with all the advantages of
+person, fortune, and family, he is not by any means worthy of you. And
+this opinion I give as well from the reasons you mention (which I cannot
+but confirm) as from what I have heard of him but a few hours ago
+from Mrs. Fortescue, a favourite of Lady Betty Lawrance, who knows him
+well--but let me congratulate you, however, on your being the first of
+our sex that ever I heard of, who has been able to turn that lion, Love,
+at her own pleasure, into a lap-dog.
+
+Well but, if you have not the throbs and the glows, you have not: and
+are not in love; good reason why--because you would not be in love; and
+there's no more to be said.--Only, my dear, I shall keep a good look-out
+upon you; and so I hope you will be upon yourself; for it is no manner
+of argument that because you would not be in love, you therefore are
+not.--But before I part entirely with this subject, a word in your ear,
+my charming friend--'tis only by way of caution, and in pursuance of the
+general observation, that a stander-by is often a better judge of the
+game than those that play.--May it not be, that you have had, and
+have, such cross creatures and such odd heads to deal with, as have not
+allowed you to attend to the throbs?--Or, if you had them a little now
+and then, whether, having had two accounts to place them to, you have
+not by mistake put them to the wrong one?
+
+But whether you have a value for Lovelace or not, I know you will be
+impatient to hear what Mrs. Fortescue has said of him. Nor will I keep
+you longer in suspense.
+
+An hundred wild stories she tells of him from childhood to manhood:
+for, as she observed, having never been subject to contradiction, he
+was always as mischievous as a monkey. But I shall pass over these whole
+hundred of his puerile rogueries (although indicative ones, as I may
+say) to take notice as well of some things you are not quite ignorant
+of, as of others you know not, and to make a few observations upon him
+and his ways.
+
+Mrs. Fortescue owns, what every body knows, 'that he is notoriously,
+nay, avowedly, a man of pleasure; yet says, that in any thing he sets
+his heart upon or undertakes, he is the most industrious and persevering
+mortal under the sun. He rests it seems not above six hours in the
+twenty-four--any more than you. He delights in writing. Whether at Lord
+M.'s, or at Lady Betty's, or Lady Sarah's, he has always a pen in his
+fingers when he retires. One of his companions (confirming his love of
+writing) has told her, that his thoughts flow rapidly to his pen:' And
+you and I, my dear, have observed, on more occasions than one, that
+though he writes even a fine hand, he is one of the readiest and
+quickest of writers. He must indeed have had early a very docile genius;
+since a person of his pleasurable turn and active spirit, could
+never have submitted to take long or great pains in attaining the
+qualifications he is master of; qualifications so seldom attained by
+youth of quality and fortune; by such especially of those of either,
+who, like him, have never known what it was to be controuled.
+
+'He had once it seems the vanity, upon being complimented on these
+talents (and on his surprising diligence, for a man of pleasure) to
+compare himself to Julius Caesar; who performed great actions by day,
+and wrote them down at night; and valued himself, that he only wanted
+Caesar's out-setting, to make a figure among his contemporaries.
+
+'He spoke of this indeed, she says, with an air of pleasantry: for
+she observed, and so have we, that he has the art of acknowledging his
+vanity with so much humour, that it sets him above the contempt which
+is due to vanity and self-opinion; and at the same time half persuades
+those who hear him, that he really deserves the exultation he gives
+himself.'
+
+But supposing it to be true that all his vacant nightly hours are
+employed in writing, what can be his subjects? If, like Caesar, his own
+actions, he must undoubtedly be a very enterprising and very wicked man;
+since nobody suspects him to have a serious turn; and, decent as he is
+in his conversation with us, his writings are not probably such as would
+redound either to his own honour, or to the benefit of others, were they
+to be read. He must be conscious of this, since Mrs. Fortescue says,
+'that in the great correspondence by letters which he holds, he is
+as secret and as careful as if it were of a treasonable nature;--yet
+troubles not his head with politics, though nobody knows the interests
+of princes and courts better than he is said to do.'
+
+That you and I, my dear, should love to write, is no wonder. We have
+always, from the time each could hold a pen, delighted in epistolary
+correspondencies. Our employments are domestic and sedentary; and we can
+scribble upon twenty innocent subjects, and take delight in them because
+they are innocent; though were they to be seen, they might not much
+profit or please others. But that such a gay, lively young fellow as
+this, who rides, hunts, travels, frequents the public entertainments,
+and has means to pursue his pleasures, should be able to set himself
+down to write for hours together, as you and I have heard him say he
+frequently does, that is the strange thing.
+
+Mrs. Fortescue says, 'that he is a complete master of short-hand
+writing.' By the way, what inducements could a swift writer as he have
+to learn short-hand!
+
+She says (and we know it as well as she) 'that he has a surprising
+memory, and a very lively imagination.'
+
+Whatever his other vices are, all the world, as well as Mrs. Fortescue,
+says, 'he is a sober man. And among all his bad qualities, gaming, that
+great waster of time as well as fortune, is not his vice:' So that he
+must have his head as cool, and his reason as clear, as the prime of
+youth and his natural gaiety will permit; and by his early morning
+hours, a great portion of time upon his hands to employ in writing, or
+worse.
+
+Mrs. Fortescue says, 'he has one gentleman who is more his intimate and
+correspondent than any of the rest.' You remember what his dismissed
+bailiff said of him and of his associates.* I don't find but that Mrs.
+Fortescue confirms this part of it, 'that all his relations are afraid
+of him; and that his pride sets him above owing obligations to them.
+She believes he is clear of the world; and that he will continue so;'
+No doubt from the same motive that makes him avoid being obliged to his
+relations.
+
+
+* Letter IV.
+
+
+A person willing to think favourably of him would hope, that a brave, a
+learned, and a diligent, man, cannot be naturally a bad man.--But if he
+be better than his enemies say he is (and if worse he is bad indeed) he
+is guilty of an inexcusable fault in being so careless as he is of his
+reputation. I think a man can be so but from one of these two reasons:
+either that he is conscious he deserves the ill spoken of him; or, that
+he takes a pride in being thought worse than he is. Both very bad and
+threatening indications; since the first must shew him to be utterly
+abandoned; and it is but natural to conclude from the other, that what
+a man is not ashamed to have imputed to him, he will not scruple to be
+guilty of whenever he has an opportunity.
+
+Upon the whole, and upon all I could gather from Mrs. Fortescue, Mr.
+Lovelace is a very faulty man. You and I have thought him too gay, too
+inconsiderate, too rash, too little an hypocrite, to be deep. You see
+he never would disguise his natural temper (haughty as it certainly
+is) with respect to your brother's behaviour to him. Where he thinks
+a contempt due, he pays it to the uttermost. Nor has he complaisance
+enough to spare your uncles.
+
+But were he deep, and ever so deep, you would soon penetrate him, if
+they would leave you to yourself. His vanity would be your clue. Never
+man had more: Yet, as Mrs. Fortescue observed, 'never did man carry
+it off so happily.' There is a strange mixture in it of humourous
+vivacity:--Since but for one half of what he says of himself, when he is
+in the vein, any other man would be insufferable.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Talk of the devil, is an old saying. The lively wretch has made me a
+visit, and is but just gone away. He is all impatience and resentment
+at the treatment you meet with, and full of apprehensions too, that they
+will carry their point with you.
+
+I told him my opinion, that you will never be brought to think of such a
+man as Solmes; but that it will probably end in a composition, never to
+have either.
+
+No man, he said, whose fortunes and alliances are so considerable, ever
+had so little favour from a woman for whose sake he had borne so much.
+
+I told him my mind as freely as I used to do. But whoever was in fault,
+self being judge? He complained of spies set upon his conduct, and to
+pry into his life and morals, and this by your brother and uncles.
+
+I told him, that this was very hard upon him; and the more so, as
+neither his life nor morals perhaps would stand a fair inquiry.
+
+He smiled, and called himself my servant.--The occasion was too fair,
+he said, for Miss Howe, who never spared him, to let it pass.--But, Lord
+help the shallow souls of the Harlowes! Would I believe it! they were
+for turning plotters upon him. They had best take care he did not pay
+them in their own coin. Their hearts were better turned for such works
+than their heads.
+
+I asked him, If he valued himself upon having a head better turned than
+theirs for such works, as he called them?
+
+He drew off: and then ran into the highest professions of reverence and
+affection for you.
+
+The object so meritorious, who can doubt the reality of his professions?
+
+Adieu, my dearest, my noble friend!--I love and admire you for the
+generous conclusion of your last more than I can express. Though I began
+this letter with impertinent raillery, knowing that you always loved to
+indulge my mad vein; yet never was there a heart that more glowed with
+friendly love, than that of
+
+Your own ANNA HOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1.
+
+
+I now take up my pen to lay before you the inducements and motive which
+my friends have to espouse so earnestly the address of this Mr. Solmes.
+
+In order to set this matter in a clear light, it is necessary to go a
+little back, and even perhaps to mention some things which you already
+know: and so you may look upon what I am going to relate, as a kind of
+supplement to my letters of the 15th and 20th of January last.*
+
+
+* Letters IV. and V.
+
+
+In those letters, of which I have kept memorandums, I gave you an
+account of my brother's and sister's antipathy to Mr. Lovelace; and the
+methods they took (so far as they had then come to my knowledge) to ruin
+him in the opinion of my other friends. And I told you, that after a
+very cold, yet not a directly affrontive behaviour to him, they all of
+a sudden* became more violent, and proceeded to personal insults; which
+brought on at last the unhappy rencounter between my brother and him.
+
+
+     * See Letter IV.
+
+
+Now you must know, that from the last conversation that passed between
+my aunt and me, it comes out, that this sudden vehemence on my
+brother's and sister's parts, was owing to stronger reasons than to the
+college-begun antipathy on his side, or to slighted love on hers;
+to wit, to an apprehension that my uncles intended to follow my
+grandfather's example in my favour; at least in a higher degree
+than they wish they should. An apprehension founded it seems on a
+conversation between my two uncles and my brother and sister: which my
+aunt communicated to me in confidence, as an argument to prevail upon
+me to accept of Mr. Solmes's noble settlements: urging, that such a
+seasonable compliance, would frustrate my brother's and sister's views,
+and establish me for ever in the love of my father and uncles.
+
+I will give you the substance of this communicated conversation, after
+I have made a brief introductory observation or two, which however I
+hardly need to make to you who are so well acquainted with us all, did
+not the series or thread of the story require it.
+
+I have more than once mentioned to you the darling view some of us have
+long had of raising a family, as it is called. A reflection, as I have
+often thought, upon our own, which is no considerable or upstart one, on
+either side, on my mother's especially.--A view too frequently it
+seems entertained by families which, having great substance, cannot be
+satisfied without rank and title.
+
+My uncles had once extended this view to each of us three children;
+urging, that as they themselves intended not to marry, we each of
+us might be so portioned, and so advantageously matched, as that
+our posterity, if not ourselves, might make a first figure in our
+country.--While my brother, as the only son, thought the two girls might
+be very well provided for by ten or fifteen thousand pounds a-piece:
+and that all the real estates in the family, to wit, my grandfather's,
+father's, and two uncles', and the remainder of their respective
+personal estates, together with what he had an expectation of from
+his godmother, would make such a noble fortune, and give him such an
+interest, as might entitle him to hope for a peerage. Nothing less would
+satisfy his ambition.
+
+With this view he gave himself airs very early; 'That his grandfather
+and uncles were his stewards: that no man ever had better: that
+daughters were but incumbrances and drawbacks upon a family:' and this
+low and familiar expression was often in his mouth, and uttered always
+with the self-complaisance which an imagined happy thought can be
+supposed to give the speaker; to wit, 'That a man who has sons brings up
+chickens for his own table,' [though once I made his comparison stagger
+with him, by asking him, If the sons, to make it hold, were to have
+their necks wrung off?] 'whereas daughters are chickens brought up
+for tables of other men.' This, accompanied with the equally polite
+reflection, 'That, to induce people to take them off their hands, the
+family-stock must be impaired into the bargain,' used to put my sister
+out of all patience: and, although she now seems to think a younger
+sister only can be an incumbrance, she was then often proposing to me to
+make a party in our own favour against my brother's rapacious views, as
+she used to call them: while I was for considering the liberties he took
+of this sort, as the effect of a temporary pleasantry, which, in a young
+man, not naturally good-humoured, I was glad to see; or as a foible that
+deserved raillery, but no other notice.
+
+But when my grandfather's will (of the purport of which in my particular
+favour, until it was opened, I was as ignorant as they) had lopped off
+one branch of my brother's expectation, he was extremely dissatisfied
+with me. Nobody indeed was pleased: for although every one loved me, yet
+being the youngest child, father, uncles, brother, sister, all thought
+themselves postponed, as to matter of right and power [Who loves not
+power?]: And my father himself could not bear that I should be made
+sole, as I may call it, and independent; for such the will, as to that
+estate and the powers it gave, (unaccountably, as they all said,) made
+me.
+
+To obviate, therefore, every one's jealousy, I gave up to my father's
+management, as you know, not only the estate, but the money bequeathed
+me (which was a moiety of what my grandfather had by him at his death;
+the other moiety being bequeathed to my sister); contenting myself
+to take as from his bounty what he was pleased to allow me, without
+desiring the least addition to my annual stipend. And then I hoped I had
+laid all envy asleep: but still my brother and sister (jealous, as now
+is evident, of my two uncles' favour of me, and of the pleasure I had
+given my father and them by this act of duty) were every now-and-then
+occasionally doing me covert ill offices: of which, however, I took the
+less notice, when I was told of them, as I thought I had removed the
+cause of their envy; and I imputed every thing of that sort to the
+petulance they are both pretty much noted for.
+
+My brother's acquisition then took place. This made us all very happy;
+and he went down to take possession of it: and his absence (on so good
+an account too) made us still happier. Then followed Lord M.'s proposal
+for my sister: and this was an additional felicity for the time. I have
+told you how exceedingly good-humoured it made my sister.
+
+You know how that went off: you know what came on in its place.
+
+My brother then returned; and we were all wrong again: and Bella, as
+I observed in my letters abovementioned, had an opportunity to give
+herself the credit of having refused Mr. Lovelace, on the score of his
+reputed faulty morals. This united my brother and sister in one cause.
+They set themselves on all occasions to depreciate Mr. Lovelace, and his
+family too (a family which deserves nothing but respect): and this gave
+rise to the conversation I am leading to, between my uncles and them: of
+which I now come to give the particulars; after I have observed, that it
+happened before the rencounter, and soon after the inquiry made into Mr.
+Lovelace's affairs had come out better than my brother and sister hoped
+it would.*
+
+
+* See Letter IV.
+
+
+They were bitterly inveighing against him, in their usual way,
+strengthening their invectives with some new stories in his disfavour,
+when my uncle Antony, having given them a patient hearing, declared,
+'That he thought the gentleman behaved like a gentleman; his niece Clary
+with prudence; and that a more honourable alliance for the family, as he
+had often told them, could not be wished for: since Mr. Lovelace had a
+very good paternal estate; and that, by the evidence of an enemy,
+all clear. Nor did it appear, that he was so bad a man as he had been
+represented to be: wild indeed; but it was a gay time of life: he was a
+man of sense: and he was sure that his niece would not have him, if
+she had not good reason to think him reformed, or that there was a
+likelihood that she could reform him by her example.'
+
+My uncle then gave one instance, my aunt told me, as a proof of a
+generosity in Mr. Lovelace's spirit, which convinced him that he was not
+a bad man in nature; and that he was of a temper, he was pleased to say,
+like my own; which was, That when he (my uncle) had represented to him,
+that he might, if he pleased, make three or four hundred pounds a year
+of his paternal estate, more than he did; he answered, 'That his tenants
+paid their rents well: that it was a maxim with his family, from which
+he would by no means depart, Never to rack-rent old tenants, or their
+descendants; and that it was a pleasure to him, to see all his tenants
+look fat, sleek, and contented.'
+
+I indeed had once occasionally heard him say something like this; and
+thought he never looked so well as at that time;--except once; and that
+was in an instance given by him on the following incident.
+
+An unhappy tenant of my uncle Antony came petitioning to my uncle
+for forbearance, in Mr. Lovelace's presence. When he had fruitlessly
+withdrawn, Mr. Lovelace pleaded his cause so well, that the man was
+called in again, and had his suit granted. And Mr. Lovelace privately
+followed him out, and gave him two guineas, for present relief; the
+man having declared, that, at the time, he had not five shilling in the
+world.
+
+On this occasion, he told my uncle (but without any airs of
+ostentation), that he had once observed an old tenant and his wife in a
+very mean habit at church; and questioning them about it the next day,
+as he knew they had no hard bargain in their farm, the man said, he had
+done some very foolish things with a good intention, which had put him
+behind-hand, and he could not have paid his rent, and appear better.
+He asked him how long it would take him to retrieve the foolish step
+he acknowledged he had made. He said, Perhaps two or three years. Well
+then, said he, I will abate you five pounds a year for seven years,
+provided you will lay it upon your wife and self, that you may make a
+Sunday-appearance like MY tenants. Mean time, take this (putting his
+hand in his pocket, and giving him five guineas), to put yourselves in
+present plight; and let me see you next Sunday at church, hand in hand,
+like an honest and loving couple; and I bespeak you to dine with me
+afterwards.
+
+Although this pleased me when I heard it, as giving an instance of
+generosity and prudence at the same time, not lessening (as my uncle
+took notice) the yearly value of the farm, yet, my dear, I had no
+throbs, no glows upon it!--Upon my word, I had not. Nevertheless I own
+to you, that I could not help saying to myself on the occasion, 'Were it
+ever to be my lot to have this man, he would not hinder me from pursuing
+the methods I so much delight to take'--With 'A pity, that such a man
+were not uniformly good!'
+
+Forgive me this digression.
+
+My uncle went on (as my aunt told me), 'That, besides his paternal
+estate, he was the immediate heir to very splendid fortunes: that, when
+he was in treaty for his niece Arabella, Lord M. told him (my uncle)
+what great things he and his two half-sisters intended to do for him,
+in order to qualify him for the title, which would be extinct at his
+Lordship's death, and which they hoped to procure for him, or a still
+higher, that of those ladies' father, which had been for some time
+extinct on failure of heirs male: that it was with this view that his
+relations were all so earnest for his marrying: that as he saw not
+where Mr. Lovelace could better himself; so, truly, he thought there was
+wealth enough in their own family to build up three considerable ones:
+that, therefore, he must needs say, he was the more desirous of this
+alliance, as there was a great probability, not only from Mr. Lovelace's
+descent, but from his fortunes, that his niece Clarissa might one day
+be a peeress of Great Britain:--and, upon that prospect [here was the
+mortifying stroke], he should, for his own part, think it not wrong to
+make such dispositions as should contribute to the better support of the
+dignity.'
+
+My uncle Harlowe, it seems, far from disapproving of what his brother
+had said, declared, 'That there was but one objection to an alliance
+with Mr. Lovelace; to wit, his faulty morals: especially as so much
+could be done for Miss Bella, and for my brother too, by my father; and
+as my brother was actually possessed of a considerable estate by virtue
+of the deed of gift and will of his godmother Lovell.'
+
+Had I known this before, I should the less have wondered at many things
+I have been unable to account for in my brother's and sister's behaviour
+to me; and been more on my guard than I imagined there was a necessity
+to be.
+
+You may easily guess how much this conversation affected my brother at
+the time. He could not, you know, but be very uneasy to hear two of his
+stewards talk at this rate to his face.
+
+He had from early days, by his violent temper, made himself both feared
+and courted by the whole family. My father himself, as I have lately
+mentioned, very often (long before my brother's acquisition had made him
+still more assuming) gave way to him, as to an only son who was to build
+up the name, and augment the honour of it. Little inducement, therefore,
+had my brother to correct a temper which gave him so much consideration
+with every body.
+
+'See, Sister Bella,' said he, in an indecent passion before my uncles,
+on this occasion I have mentioned--'See how it is!--You and I ought to
+look about us!--This little syren is in a fair way to out-uncle, as she
+has already out-grandfather'd, us both!'
+
+From this time (as I now find it plain upon recollection) did my brother
+and sister behave to me, as to one who stood in their way; and to each
+other as having but one interest: and were resolved, therefore, to bend
+all their force to hinder an alliance from taking effect, which they
+believed was likely to oblige them to contract their views.
+
+And how was this to be done, after such a declaration from both my
+uncles?
+
+My brother found out the way. My sister (as I have said) went hand in
+hand with him. Between them, the family union was broke, and every one
+was made uneasy. Mr. Lovelace was received more and more coldly by all:
+but not being to be put out of his course by slights only, personal
+affronts succeeded; defiances next; then the rencounter: that, as you
+have heard, did the business. And now, if I do not oblige them, my
+grandfather's estate is to be litigated with me; and I, who never
+designed to take advantage of the independency bequeathed me, am to be
+as dependent upon my father's will, as a daughter ought to be who knows
+not what is good for herself. This is the language of the family now.
+
+But if I will suffer myself to be prevailed upon, how happy (as they lay
+it out) shall we all be!--Such presents am I to have, such jewels, and
+I cannot tell what, from every one in the family! Then Mr. Solmes's
+fortunes are so great, and his proposals so very advantageous, (no
+relation whom he values,) that there will be abundant room to raise
+mine upon them, were the high-intended favours of my own relations to
+be quite out of the question. Moreover, it is now, with this view,
+found out, that I have qualifications which of themselves will be a full
+equivalent to Mr. Solmes for the settlements he is to make; and still
+leave him under an obligation to me for my compliance. He himself thinks
+so, I am told--so very poor a creature is he, even in his own eyes, as
+well as in theirs.
+
+These desirable views answered, how rich, how splendid shall we all
+three be! And I--what obligations shall I lay upon them all!--And that
+only by doing an act of duty so suitable to my character, and manner of
+thinking; if, indeed, I am the generous as well as dutiful creature I
+have hitherto made them believe I am.
+
+This is the bright side that is turned to my father and uncles, to
+captivate them: but I am afraid that my brother's and sister's design is
+to ruin me with them at any rate. Were it otherwise, would they not on
+my return from you have rather sought to court than frighten me into
+measures which their hearts are so much bent to carry? A method they
+have followed ever since.
+
+Mean time, orders are given to all the servants to shew the highest
+respect to Mr. Solmes; the generous Mr. Solmes is now his character with
+some of our family! But are not these orders a tacit confession,
+that they think his own merit will not procure him respect? He is
+accordingly, in every visit he makes, not only highly caressed by the
+principals of our family, but obsequiously attended and cringed to by
+the menials.--And the noble settlements are echoed from every mouth.
+
+Noble is the word used to enforce the offers of a man who is mean enough
+avowedly to hate, and wicked enough to propose to rob of their just
+expectations, his own family, (every one of which at the same time
+stands in too much need of his favour,) in order to settle all he is
+worth upon me; and if I die without children, and he has none by any
+other marriage, upon a family which already abounds. Such are his
+proposals.
+
+But were there no other motive to induce me to despise the upstart man,
+is not this unjust one to his family enough?--The upstart man, I repeat;
+for he was not born to the immense riches he is possessed of: riches
+left by one niggard to another, in injury to the next heir, because that
+other is a niggard. And should I not be as culpable, do you think, in my
+acceptance of such unjust settlements, as he is in the offer of them, if
+I could persuade myself to be a sharer in them, or suffer a reversionary
+expectation of possessing them to influence my choice?
+
+Indeed, it concerns me not a little, that my friends could be brought to
+encourage such offers on such motives as I think a person of conscience
+should not presume to begin the world with.
+
+But this it seems is the only method that can be taken to disappoint Mr.
+Lovelace; and at the same time to answer all my relations have wish for
+each of us. And surely I will not stand against such an accession to the
+family as may happen from marrying Mr. Solmes: since now a possibility
+is discovered, (which such a grasping mind as my brother's can easily
+turn into a probability,) that my grandfather's estate will revert to
+it, with a much more considerable one of the man's own. Instances of
+estates falling in, in cases far more unlikely than this, are insisted
+upon; and my sister says, in the words of an old saw, It is good to be
+related to an estate.
+
+While Solmes, smiling no doubt to himself at a hope so remote, by offers
+only, obtains all their interests; and doubts not to join to his own
+the estate I am envied for; which, for the conveniency of its situation
+between two of his, will it seems be of twice the value to him that
+it would be of to any other person; and is therefore, I doubt not, a
+stronger motive with him than the wife.
+
+These, my dear, seem to me the principal inducements of my relations to
+espouse so vehemently as they do this man's suit. And here, once more,
+must I deplore the family fault, which gives those inducements such a
+force as it will be difficult to resist.
+
+And thus far, let matters with regard to Mr. Solmes and me come out as
+they will, my brother has succeeded in his views; that is to say, he
+has, in the first place, got my FATHER to make the cause his own, and to
+insist upon my compliance as an act of duty.
+
+My MOTHER has never thought fit to oppose my father's will, when once he
+has declared himself determined.
+
+My UNCLES, stiff, unbroken, highly-prosperous bachelors, give me leave
+to say, (though very worthy persons in the main,) have as high notions
+of a child's duty, as of a wife's obedience; in the last of which, my
+mother's meekness has confirmed them, and given them greater reason to
+expect the first.
+
+My aunt HERVEY (not extremely happy in her own nuptials, and perhaps
+under some little obligation) is got over, and chuses [sic] not to
+open her lips in my favour against the wills of a father and uncles so
+determined.
+
+This passiveness in my mother and in my aunt, in a point so contrary
+to their own first judgments, is too strong a proof that my father is
+absolutely resolved.
+
+Their treatment of my worthy MRS. NORTON is a sad confirmation of it:
+a woman deserving of all consideration for her wisdom, and every body
+thinking so; but who, not being wealthy enough to have due weight in a
+point against which she has given her opinion, and which they seem
+bent upon carrying, is restrained from visiting here, and even from
+corresponding with me, as I am this very day informed.
+
+Hatred to Lovelace, family aggrandizement, and this great motive
+paternal authority!--What a force united must they be supposed to have,
+when singly each consideration is sufficient to carry all before it!
+
+This is the formidable appearance which the address of this disagreeable
+man wears at present.
+
+My BROTHER and my SISTER triumph.--They have got me down, as Hannah
+overheard them exult. And so they have (yet I never knew that I
+was insolently up); for now my brother will either lay me under an
+obligation to comply to my own unhappiness, and so make me an instrument
+of his revenge upon Lovelace; or, if I refuse, will throw me into
+disgrace with my whole family.
+
+Who will wonder at the intrigues and plots carried on by undermining
+courtiers against one another, when a private family, but three of which
+can possibly have clashing interests, and one of them (as she presumes
+to think) above such low motives, cannot be free from them?
+
+What at present most concerns me, is, the peace of my mother's mind!
+How can the husband of such a wife (a good man too!--But oh! this
+prerogative of manhood!) be so positive, so unpersuadable, to one who
+has brought into the family means, which they know so well the value of,
+that methinks they should value her the more for their sake?
+
+They do indeed value her: but, I am sorry to say, she has purchased
+that value by her compliances; yet has merit for which she ought to be
+venerated; prudence which ought of itself to be conformed to in every
+thing.
+
+But whither roves my pen? How dare a perverse girl take these liberties
+with relations so very respectable, and whom she highly respects? What
+an unhappy situation is that which obliges her, in her own defence as it
+were, to expose their failings?
+
+But you, who know how much I love and reverence my mother, will judge
+what a difficulty I am under, to be obliged to oppose a scheme which she
+has engaged in. Yet I must oppose it (to comply is impossible); and must
+without delay declare my opposition, or my difficulties will increase;
+since, as I am just now informed, a lawyer has been this very day
+consulted [Would you have believed it?] in relation to settlements.
+
+Were ours a Roman Catholic family, how much happier for me, that they
+thought a nunnery would answer all their views!--How happy, had not
+a certain person slighted somebody! All then would have been probably
+concluded between them before my brother had arrived to thwart
+the match: then had I a sister; which now I have not; and two
+brothers;--both aspiring; possibly both titled: while I should only have
+valued that in either which is above title, that which is truly noble in
+both!
+
+But by what a long-reaching selfishness is my brother governed! By what
+remote, exceedingly remote views! Views, which it is in the power of the
+slightest accident, of a fever, for instance, (the seeds of which are
+always vegetating, as I may say, and ready to burst forth, in his own
+impetuous temper,) or of the provoked weapon of an adversary, to blow up
+and destroy!
+
+I will break off here. Let me write ever so freely of my friends, I am
+sure of your kind construction: and I confide in your discretion, that
+you will avoid reading to or transcribing for others such passages as
+may have the appearance of treating too freely the parental, or even the
+fraternal character, or induce others to censure for a supposed failure
+in duty to the one, or decency to the other,
+
+Your truly affectionate, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIV
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 2.
+
+
+On Hannah's depositing my long letter, (begun yesterday, but by reason
+of several interruptions not finished till within this hour,) she found
+and brought me yours of this day. I thank you, my dear, for this kind
+expedition. These few lines will perhaps be time enough deposited, to be
+taken away by your servant with the other letter: yet they are only to
+thank you, and to tell you my increasing apprehensions.
+
+I must take or seek the occasion to apply to my mother for her
+mediation; for I am in danger of having a day fixed, and antipathy taken
+for bashfulness.--Should not sisters be sisters to each other? Should
+not they make a common cause of it, as I may say, a cause of sex, on
+such occasions as the present? Yet mine, in support of my brother's
+selfishness, and, no doubt, in concert with him, has been urging in full
+assembly it seems, (and that with an earnestness peculiar to herself
+when she sets upon any thing,) that an absolute day be given me; and if
+I comply not, to be told, that it shall be to the forfeiture of all my
+fortunes, and of all their love.
+
+She need not be so officious: my brother's interest, without hers, is
+strong enough; for he has found means to confederate all the family
+against me. Upon some fresh provocation, or new intelligence concerning
+Mr. Lovelace, (I know not what it is,) they have bound themselves, or
+are to bind themselves, by a signed paper, to one another [The Lord
+bless me, my dear, what shall I do!] to carry their point in favour of
+Mr. Solmes, in support of my father's authority, as it is called, and
+against Mr. Lovelace, as a libertine, and an enemy to the family: and if
+so, I am sure, I may say against me.--How impolitic in them all, to join
+two people in one interest, whom they wish for ever to keep asunder!
+
+What the discharged steward reported of him is surely bad enough: what
+Mrs. Fortescue said, not only confirms that bad, but gives room to think
+him still worse. And yet the something further which my friends have
+come at, is of so heinous a nature (as Betty Barnes tells Hannah) that
+it proves him almost to be the worst of men.--But, hang the man, I
+had almost said--What is he to me? What would he be--were not this Mr.
+Sol----O my dear, how I hate the man in the light he is proposed to me!
+
+All of them, at the same time, are afraid of Mr. Lovelace; yet not
+afraid to provoke him!--How am I entangled!--to be obliged to go on
+corresponding with him for their sakes--Heaven forbid, that their
+persisted-in violence should so drive me, as to make it necessary for my
+own!
+
+But surely they will yield--Indeed I cannot.
+
+I believe the gentlest spirits when provoked (causelessly and cruelly
+provoked) are the most determined. The reason may be, that not taking
+up resolutions lightly--their very deliberation makes them the more
+immovable.--And then when a point is clear and self-evident, how can
+one with patience think of entering into an argument or contention upon
+it?--
+
+An interruption obliges me to conclude myself, in some hurry, as well as
+fright, what I must ever be,
+
+Yours more than my own, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV
+
+MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE FRIDAY, MARCH 3.
+
+
+I have both your letters at once. It is very unhappy, my dear, since
+your friends will have you marry, that a person of your merit should be
+addressed by a succession of worthless creatures, who have nothing but
+their presumption for their excuse.
+
+That these presumers appear not in this very unworthy light to some of
+your friends, is, because their defects are not so striking to them
+as to others.--And why? Shall I venture to tell you?--Because they are
+nearer their own standard--Modesty, after all, perhaps has a concern in
+it; for how should they think that a niece or sister of theirs [I will
+not go higher, for fear of incurring your displeasure] should be an
+angel?
+
+But where indeed is the man to be found (who has the least share of due
+diffidence) that dares to look up to Miss Clarissa Harlowe with hope, or
+with any thing but wishes? Thus the bold and forward, not being sensible
+of their defects, aspire; while the modesty of the really worthy fills
+them with too much reverence to permit them to explain themselves. Hence
+your Symmes's, your Byron's, your Mullins's, your Wyerley's (the best
+of the herd), and your Solmes's, in turn, invade you--Wretches that,
+looking upon the rest of your family, need not despair of succeeding in
+an alliance with it--But to you, what an inexcusable presumption!
+
+Yet I am afraid all opposition will be in vain. You must, you will, I
+doubt, be sacrificed to this odious man. I know your family. There will
+be no resisting such baits as he has thrown out. O, my dear, my beloved
+friend! and are such charming qualities, is such exalted merit, to be
+sunk in such a marriage!--You must not, your uncle tells your mother,
+dispute their authority. AUTHORITY! what a full word is that in the
+mouth of a narrow-minded person, who happened to be born thirty years
+before one!--Of your uncles I speak; for as to the paternal authority,
+that ought to be sacred.--But should not parents have reason for what
+they do?
+
+Wonder not, however, at your Bell's unsisterly behaviour in this affair:
+I have a particular to add to the inducements your insolent brother is
+governed by, which will account for all her driving. You have already
+owned, that her outward eye was from the first struck with the figure
+and address of the man whom she pretends to despise, and who, 'tis
+certain, thoroughly despises her: but you have not told me, that still
+she loves him of all men. Bell has a meanness in her very pride; that
+meanness rises with her pride, and goes hand in hand with it; and no
+one is so proud as Bell. She has owned her love, her uneasy days,
+and sleepless nights, and her revenge grafted upon her love, to her
+favourite Betty Barnes--To lay herself in the power of a servant's
+tongue! Poor creature!--But LIKE little souls will find one another
+out, and mingle, as well as LIKE great ones. This, however, she told the
+wench in strict confidence: and thus, by way of the female round-about,
+as Lovelace had the sauciness on such another occasion, in ridicule of
+our sex, to call it, Betty (pleased to be thought worthy of a secret,
+and to have an opportunity of inveighing against Lovelace's perfidy,
+as she would have it to be) told it to one of her confidants:
+that confidant, with like injunctions of secrecy, to Miss Lloyd's
+Harriot--Harriot to Miss Lloyd--Miss Lloyd to me--I to you--with leave
+to make what you please of it.
+
+And now you will not wonder to find Miss Bell an implacable rival,
+rather than an affectionate sister; and will be able to account for the
+words witchcraft, syren, and such like, thrown out against you; and for
+her driving on for a fixed day for sacrificing you to Solmes: in short,
+for her rudeness and violence of every kind.
+
+What a sweet revenge will she take, as well upon Lovelace as upon you,
+if she can procure her rival sister to be married to the man that sister
+hates; and so prevent her having the man whom she herself loves (whether
+she have hope of him or not), and whom she suspects her sister loves!
+
+Poisons and poniard have often been set to work by minds inflamed by
+disappointed love, and actuated by revenge.--Will you wonder, then, that
+the ties of relationship in such a case have no force, and that a sister
+forgets to be a sister?
+
+Now I know this to be her secret motive, (the more grating to her, as
+her pride is concerned to make her disavow it), and can consider it
+joined with her former envy, and as strengthened by a brother, who has
+such an ascendant over the whole family; and whose interest (slave to it
+as he always was) engaged him to ruin you with every one: both possessed
+of the ears of all your family, and having it as much in their power as
+in their will to misrepresent all you say, all you do; such subject also
+as to the rencounter, and Lovelace's want of morals, to expatiate upon:
+your whole family likewise avowedly attached to the odious man by means
+of the captivating proposals he has made them;--when I consider all
+these things, I am full of apprehensions for you.--O my dear, how will
+you be able to maintain your ground;--I am sure, (alas! I am too sure)
+that they will subdue such a fine spirit as yours, unused to opposition;
+and (tell it not in Gath) you must be Mrs. Solmes!
+
+Mean time, it is now easy, as you will observe, to guess from what
+quarter the report I mentioned to you in one of my former, came,
+That the younger sister has robbed the elder of her lover:* for Betty
+whispered it, at the time she whispered the rest, that neither Lovelace
+nor you had done honourably by her young mistress.--How cruel, my dear,
+in you, to rob the poor Bella of the only lover she only had!--At the
+instant too that she was priding herself, that now at last she should
+have it in her power not only to gratify her own susceptibilities, but
+to give an example to the flirts of her sex** (my worship's self in
+her eye) how to govern their man with a silken rein, and without a
+curb-bridle!
+
+
+     * Letter I.
+
+     ** Letter II.
+
+
+Upon the whole, I have now no doubt of their persevering in favour of
+the despicable Solmes; and of their dependence upon the gentleness of
+your temper, and the regard you have for their favour, and for your own
+reputation. And now I am more than ever convinced of the propriety of
+the advice I formerly gave you, to keep in your own hands the estate
+bequeathed to you by your grandfather.--Had you done so, it would have
+procured you at least an outward respect from your brother and sister,
+which would have made them conceal the envy and ill-will that now are
+bursting upon you from hearts so narrow.
+
+I must harp a little more upon this string--Do not you observe, how much
+your brother's influence has overtopped yours, since he has got into
+fortunes so considerable, and since you have given some of them an
+appetite to continue in themselves the possession of your estate, unless
+you comply with their terms?
+
+I know your dutiful, your laudable motives; and one would have thought,
+that you might have trusted to a father who so dearly loved you. But had
+you been actually in possession of that estate, and living up to it, and
+upon it, (your youth protected from blighting tongues by the company
+of your prudent Norton, as you had proposed,) do you think that your
+brother, grudging it to you at the time as he did, and looking upon it
+as his right as an only son, would have been practising about it, and
+aiming at it? I told you some time ago, that I thought your trials but
+proportioned to your prudence:* but you will be more than woman, if
+you can extricate yourself with honour, having such violent spirits and
+sordid minds in some, and such tyrannical and despotic wills in others,
+to deal with. Indeed, all may be done, and the world be taught further
+to admire you for your blind duty and will-less resignation, if you can
+persuade yourself to be Mrs. Solmes.
+
+
+     * Letter I.
+
+
+I am pleased with the instances you give me of Mr. Lovelace's
+benevolence to his own tenants, and with his little gift to your
+uncle's. Mrs. Fortescue allows him to be the best of landlords: I might
+have told you that, had I thought it necessary to put you into some
+little conceit of him. He has qualities, in short, that may make him
+a tolerable creature on the other side of fifty: but God help the
+poor woman to whose lot he shall fall till then! women, I should say,
+perhaps; since he may break half-a-dozen hearts before that time.--But
+to the point I was upon--Shall we not have reason to commend the
+tenant's grateful honesty, if we are told, that with joy the poor man
+called out your uncle, and on the spot paid him in part of his debt
+those two guineas?--But what shall we say of that landlord, who, though
+he knew the poor man to be quite destitute, could take it; and, saying
+nothing while Mr. Lovelace staid, as soon as he was gone, tell of it in
+praise of the poor fellow's honesty?--Were this so, and were not that
+landlord related to my dearest friend, how should I despise such a
+wretch?--But, perhaps, the story is aggravated. Covetous people have
+every one's ill word: and so indeed they ought; because they are
+only solicitous to keep that which they prefer to every one's good
+one.--Covetous indeed would they be, who deserved neither, yet expected
+both!
+
+I long for your next letter. Continue to be as particular as possible.
+I can think of no other subject but what relates to you and to your
+affairs: for I am, and ever will be, most affectionately,
+
+Your own, ANNA HOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE [HER PRECEDING NOT AT THAT TIME
+RECEIVED.] FRIDAY, MARCH 3.
+
+
+O my dear friend, I have had a sad conflict! Trial upon trial;
+conference upon conference!--But what law, what ceremony, can give a
+man a right to a heart which abhors him more than it does any living
+creature?
+
+I hope my mother will be able to prevail for me.--But I will recount it
+all, though I sit up the whole night to do it; for I have a vast deal to
+write, and will be as minute as you wish me to be.
+
+I concluded my last in a fright. It was occasioned by a conversation
+that passed between my mother and my aunt, part of which Hannah
+overheard. I need not give you the particulars; since what I have to
+relate to you from different conversations that have passed between my
+mother and me, in the space of a very few hours, will include them all.
+I will begin then.
+
+I went down this morning when breakfast was ready with a very uneasy
+heart, from what Hannah had informed me of yesterday afternoon; wishing
+for an opportunity, however, to appeal to my mother, in hopes to engage
+her interest in my behalf, and purposing to try to find one when she
+retired to her own apartment after breakfast: but, unluckily, there was
+the odious Solmes, sitting asquat between my mother and sister, with so
+much assurance in his looks!--But you know, my dear, that those we love
+not, cannot do any thing to please us.
+
+Had the wretch kept his seat, it might have been well enough: but the
+bend and broad-shouldered creature must needs rise, and stalk towards a
+chair, which was just by that which was set for me.
+
+I removed it to a distance, as if to make way to my own: and down I sat,
+abruptly I believe; what I had heard all in my head.
+
+But this was not enough to daunt him. The man is a very confident, he is
+a very bold, staring man!--Indeed, my dear, the man is very confident.
+
+He took the removed chair, and drew it so near mine, squatting in it
+with his ugly weight, that he pressed upon my hoop.--I was so offended
+(all I had heard, as I said, in my head) that I removed to another
+chair. I own I had too little command of myself. It gave my brother
+and sister too much advantage. I day say they took it. But I did it
+involuntarily, I think. I could not help it.--I knew not what I did.
+
+I saw that my father was excessively displeased. When angry, no man's
+countenance ever shews it so much as my father's. Clarissa Harlowe! said
+he with a big voice--and there he stopped. Sir! said I, trembling and
+courtesying (for I had not then sat down again); and put my chair nearer
+the wretch, and sat down--my face, as I could feel, all in a glow.
+
+Make tea, child, said my kind mamma; sit by me, love, and make tea.
+
+I removed with pleasure to the seat the man had quitted; and being
+thus indulgently put into employment, soon recovered myself; and in the
+course of the breakfasting officiously asked two or three questions
+of Mr. Solmes, which I would not have done, but to make up with my
+father.--Proud spirits may be brought to! Whisperingly spoke my sister
+to me, over her shoulder, with an air of triumph and scorn: but I did
+not mind her.
+
+My mother was all kindness and condescension. I asked her once, if she
+were pleased with the tea? She said, softly, (and again called me dear,)
+she was pleased with all I did. I was very proud of this encouraging
+goodness: and all blew over, as I hoped, between my father and me; for
+he also spoke kindly to me two or three times.
+
+Small accidents these, my dear, to trouble you with; only as they lead
+to greater, as you shall hear.
+
+Before the usual breakfast-time was over, my father withdrew with my
+mother, telling her he wanted to speak with her. Then my sister and next
+my aunt (who was with us) dropt away.
+
+My brother gave himself some airs of insult, which I understood well
+enough; but which Mr. Solmes could make nothing of: and at last he arose
+from his seat--Sister, said he, I have a curiosity to shew you. I will
+fetch it. And away he went shutting the door close after him.
+
+I saw what all this was for. I arose; the man hemming up for a speech,
+rising, and beginning to set his splay-feet [indeed, my dear, the man in
+all his ways is hateful to me] in an approaching posture.--I will
+save my brother the trouble of bringing to me his curiosity, said I. I
+courtesied--Your servant, sir--The man cried, Madam, Madam, twice, and
+looked like a fool.--But away I went--to find my brother, to save my
+word.--But my brother, indifferent as the weather was, was gone to
+walk in the garden with my sister. A plain case, that he had left his
+curiosity with me, and designed to shew me no other.
+
+I had but just got into my own apartment, and began to think of sending
+Hannah to beg an audience of my mother (the more encouraged by her
+condescending goodness at breakfast) when Shorey, her woman, brought me
+her commands to attend me in her closet.
+
+My father, Hannah told me, was just gone out of it with a positive angry
+countenance. Then I as much dreaded the audience as I had wished for it
+before.
+
+I went down however; but, apprehending the subject she intended to
+talk to me upon, approached her trembling, and my heart in visible
+palpitations.
+
+She saw my concern. Holding out her kind arms, as she sat, Come kiss
+me, my dear, said she, with a smile like a sun-beam breaking through
+the cloud that overshadowed her naturally benign aspect--Why flutters my
+jewel so?
+
+This preparative sweetness, with her goodness just before, confirmed my
+apprehensions. My mother saw the bitter pill wanted gilding.
+
+O my Mamma! was all I could say; and I clasped my arms round her neck,
+and my face sunk into her bosom.
+
+My child! my child! restrain, said she, your powers of moving! I dare
+not else trust myself with you.--And my tears trickled down her bosom,
+as hers bedewed my neck.
+
+O the words of kindness, all to be expressed in vain, that flowed from
+her lips!
+
+Lift up your sweet face, my best child, my own Clarissa Harlowe!--O my
+daughter, best beloved of my heart, lift up a face so ever amiable to
+me!--Why these sobs?--Is an apprehended duty so affecting a thing, that
+before I can speak--But I am glad, my love, you can guess at what I have
+to say to you. I am spared the pains of breaking to you what was a task
+upon me reluctantly enough undertaken to break to you. Then rising, she
+drew a chair near her own, and made me sit down by her, overwhelmed as I
+was with tears of apprehension of what she had to say, and of gratitude
+for her truly maternal goodness to me--sobs still my only language.
+
+And drawing her chair still nearer to mine, she put her arms round my
+neck, and my glowing cheek wet with my tears, close to her own: Let me
+talk to you, my child. Since silence is your choice, hearken to me, and
+be silent.
+
+You know, my dear, what I every day forego, and undergo, for the sake of
+peace. Your papa is a very good man, and means well; but he will not
+be controuled; nor yet persuaded. You have sometimes seemed to pity me,
+that I am obliged to give up every point. Poor man! his reputation the
+less for it; mine the greater: yet would I not have this credit, if
+I could help it, at so dear a rate to him and to myself. You are a
+dutiful, a prudent, and a wise child, she was pleased to say, in hope,
+no doubt, to make me so: you would not add, I am sure, to my trouble:
+you would not wilfully break that peace which costs your mother so much
+to preserve. Obedience is better than sacrifice. O my Clary Harlowe,
+rejoice my heart, by telling me that I have apprehended too much!--I see
+your concern! I see your perplexity! I see your conflict! [loosing
+her arm, and rising, not willing I should see how much she herself
+was affected]. I will leave you a moment.--Answer me not--[for I was
+essaying to speak, and had, as soon as she took her dear cheek from
+mine, dropt down on my knees, my hands clasped, and lifted up in
+a supplicating manner]--I am not prepared for your irresistible
+expostulation, she was pleased to say. I will leave you to recollection:
+and I charge you, on my blessing, that all this my truly maternal
+tenderness be not thrown away upon you.
+
+And then she withdrew into the next apartment; wiping her eyes as she
+went from me; as mine overflowed; my heart taking in the whole compass
+of her meaning.
+
+She soon returned, having recovered more steadiness.
+
+Still on my knees, I had thrown my face across the chair she had sat in.
+
+Look up to me, my Clary Harlowe--No sullenness, I hope!
+
+No, indeed, my ever-to-be-revered Mamma.--And I arose. I bent my knee.
+
+She raised me. No kneeling to me, but with knees of duty and compliance.
+Your heart, not your knees, must bend. It is absolutely determined.
+Prepare yourself therefore to receive your father, when he visits you
+by-and-by, as he would wish to receive you. But on this one quarter of
+an hour depends the peace of my future life, the satisfaction of all the
+family, and your own security from a man of violence: and I charge you
+besides, on my blessing, that you think of being Mrs. Solmes.
+
+There went the dagger to my heart, and down I sunk: and when I
+recovered, found myself in the arms of my Hannah, my sister's Betty
+holding open my reluctantly-opened palm, my laces cut, my linen scented
+with hartshorn; and my mother gone. Had I been less kindly treated, the
+hated name still forborne to be mentioned, or mentioned with a little
+more preparation and reserve, I had stood the horrid sound with less
+visible emotion--But to be bid, on the blessing of a mother so dearly
+beloved, so truly reverenced, to think of being MRS. SOLMES--what a
+denunciation was that!
+
+Shorey came in with a message (delivered in her solemn way): Your mamma,
+Miss, is concerned for your disorder: she expects you down again in an
+hour; and bid me say, that she then hopes every thing from your duty.
+
+I made no reply; for what could I say? And leaning upon my Hannah's arm,
+withdrew to my own apartment. There you will guess how the greatest part
+of the hour was employed.
+
+Within that time, my mother came up to me.
+
+I love, she was pleased to say, to come into this apartment.--No
+emotions, child! No flutters!--Am I not your mother?--Do not discompose
+me by discomposing yourself! Do not occasion me uneasiness, when I
+would give you nothing but pleasure. Come, my dear, we will go into your
+closet.
+
+She took my hand, led the way, and made me sit down by her: and after
+she had inquired how I did, she began in a strain as if she supposed I
+had made use of the intervening space to overcome all my objections.
+
+She was pleased to tell me, that my father and she, in order to spare my
+natural modesty, had taken the whole affair upon themselves--
+
+Hear me out; and then speak.--He is not indeed every thing I wish him to
+be: but he is a man of probity, and has no vices--
+
+No vices, Madam--!
+
+Hear me out, child.--You have not behaved much amiss to him: we have
+seen with pleasure that you have not--
+
+O Madam, must I not now speak!
+
+I shall have done presently.--A young creature of your virtuous and
+pious turn, she was pleased to say, cannot surely love a profligate: you
+love your brother too well, to wish to marry one who had like to have
+killed him, and who threatened your uncles, and defies us all. You have
+had your own way six or seven times: we want to secure you against a man
+so vile. Tell me (I have a right to know) whether you prefer this man
+to all others?--Yet God forbid that I should know you do; for such
+a declaration would make us all miserable. Yet tell me, are your
+affections engaged to this man?
+
+I knew not what the inference would be, if I said they were not.
+
+You hesitate--You answer me not--You cannot answer me.--Rising--Never
+more will I look upon you with an eye of favour--
+
+O Madam, Madam! Kill me not with your displeasure--I would not, I need
+not, hesitate one moment, did I not dread the inference, if I answer
+you as you wish.--Yet be that inference what it will, your threatened
+displeasure will make me speak. And I declare to you, that I know not my
+own heart, if it not be absolutely free. And pray, let me ask my dearest
+Mamma, in what has my conduct been faulty, that, like a giddy creature,
+I must be forced to marry, to save me from--From what? Let me beseech
+you, Madam, to be the guardian of my reputation! Let not your Clarissa
+be precipitated into a state she wishes not to enter into with any man!
+And this upon a supposition that otherwise she shall marry herself, and
+disgrace her whole family.
+
+Well then, Clary [passing over the force of my plea] if your heart be
+free--
+
+O my beloved Mamma, let the usual generosity of your dear heart operate
+in my favour. Urge not upon me the inference that made me hesitate.
+
+I won't be interrupted, Clary--You have seen in my behaviour to you,
+on this occasion, a truly maternal tenderness; you have observed that
+I have undertaken the task with some reluctance, because the man is not
+every thing; and because I know you carry your notions of perfection in
+a man too high--
+
+Dearest Madam, this one time excuse me!--Is there then any danger that I
+should be guilty of an imprudent thing for the man's sake you hint at?
+
+Again interrupted!--Am I to be questioned, and argued with? You know
+this won't do somewhere else. You know it won't. What reason then,
+ungenerous girl, can you have for arguing with me thus, but because you
+think from my indulgence to you, you may?
+
+What can I say? What can I do? What must that cause be that will not
+bear being argued upon?
+
+Again! Clary Harlowe!
+
+Dearest Madam, forgive me: it was always my pride and my pleasure to
+obey you. But look upon that man--see but the disagreeableness of his
+person--
+
+Now, Clary, do I see whose person you have in your eye!--Now is Mr.
+Solmes, I see, but comparatively disagreeable; disagreeable only as
+another man has a much more specious person
+
+But, Madam, are not his manners equally so?--Is not his person the true
+representative of his mind?--That other man is not, shall not be, any
+thing to me, release me but from this one man, whom my heart, unbidden,
+resists.
+
+Condition thus with your father. Will he bear, do you think, to be thus
+dialogued with? Have I not conjured you, as you value my peace--What
+is it that I do not give up?--This very task, because I apprehended you
+would not be easily persuaded, is a task indeed upon me. And will you
+give up nothing? Have you not refused as many as have been offered to
+you? If you would not have us guess for whom, comply; for comply you
+must, or be looked upon as in a state of defiance with your whole
+family.
+
+And saying this, she arose and went from me. But at the chamber-door
+stopt; and turned back: I will not say below in what a disposition I
+leave you. Consider of every thing. The matter is resolved upon. As you
+value your father's blessing and mine, and the satisfaction of all the
+family, resolve to comply. I will leave you for a few moments. I will
+come up to you again. See that I find you as I wish to find you; and
+since your heart is free, let your duty govern it.
+
+In about half an hour, my mother returned. She found me in tears.
+She took my hand: It is my part evermore, said she, to be of the
+acknowledging side. I believe I have needlessly exposed myself to your
+opposition, by the method I have taken with you. I first began as if I
+expected a denial, and by my indulgence brought it upon myself.
+
+Do not, my dearest Mamma! do not say so!
+
+Were the occasion for this debate, proceeded she, to have risen from
+myself; were it in my power to dispense with your compliance; you too
+well know what you can do with me.
+
+Would any body, my dear Miss Howe, wish to marry, who sees a wife of
+such a temper, and blessed with such an understanding as my mother is
+noted for, not only deprived of all power, but obliged to be even active
+in bringing to bear a point of high importance, which she thinks ought
+not to be insisted upon?
+
+When I came to you a second time, proceeded she, knowing that your
+opposition would avail you nothing, I refused to hear your reasons: and
+in this I was wrong too, because a young creature who loves to reason,
+and used to love to be convinced by reason, ought to have all her
+objections heard: I now therefore, this third time, see you; and am
+come resolved to hear all you have to say: and let me, my dear, by my
+patience engage your gratitude; your generosity, I will call it, because
+it is to you I speak, who used to have a mind wholly generous.--Let me,
+if your heart be really free, let me see what it will induce you to do
+to oblige me: and so as you permit your usual discretion to govern you,
+I will hear all you have to say; but with this intimation, that say what
+you will, it will be of no avail elsewhere.
+
+What a dreadful saying is that! But could I engage your pity, Madam, it
+would be somewhat.
+
+You have as much of my pity as of my love. But what is person, Clary,
+with one of your prudence, and your heart disengaged?
+
+Should the eye be disgusted, when the heart is to be engaged?--O
+Madam, who can think of marrying when the heart is shocked at the
+first appearance, and where the disgust must be confirmed by every
+conversation afterwards?
+
+This, Clary, is owing to your prepossession. Let me not have cause
+to regret that noble firmness of mind in so young a creature which I
+thought your glory, and which was my boast in your character. In this
+instance it would be obstinacy, and want of duty.--Have you not made
+objections to several--
+
+That was to their minds, to their principles, Madam.--But this man--
+
+Is an honest man, Clary Harlowe. He has a good mind. He is a virtuous
+man.
+
+He an honest man? His a good mind, Madam? He a virtuous man?--
+
+Nobody denies these qualities.
+
+Can he be an honest man who offers terms that will rob all his own
+relations of their just expectations?--Can his mind be good--
+
+You, Clary Harlowe, for whose sake he offers so much, are the last
+person who should make this observation.
+
+Give me leave to say, Madam, that a person preferring happiness to
+fortune, as I do; that want not even what I have, and can give up the
+use of that, as an instance of duty--
+
+No more, no more of your merits!--You know you will be a gainer by that
+cheerful instance of your duty; not a loser. You know you have but
+cast your bread upon the waters--so no more of that!--For it is not
+understood as a merit by every body, I assure you; though I think it a
+high one; and so did your father and uncles at the time--
+
+At the time, Madam!--How unworthily do my brother and sister, who are
+afraid that the favour I was so lately in--
+
+I hear nothing against your brother and sister--What family feuds have I
+in prospect, at a time when I hoped to have most comfort from you all!
+
+
+God bless my brother and sister in all their worthy views! You shall
+have no family feuds if I can prevent them. You yourself, Madam, shall
+tell me what I shall bear from them, and I will bear it: but let my
+actions, not their misrepresentations (as I am sure by the disgraceful
+prohibitions I have met with has been the case) speak for me.
+
+Just then, up came my father, with a sternness in his looks that made me
+tremble.--He took two or three turns about my chamber, though pained by
+his gout; and then said to my mother, who was silent as soon as she saw
+him--
+
+My dear, you are long absent.--Dinner is near ready. What you had to
+say, lay in a very little compass. Surely, you have nothing to do but
+to declare your will, and my will--But perhaps you may be talking of the
+preparations--Let us have you soon down--Your daughter in your hand, if
+worthy of the name.
+
+And down he went, casting his eye upon me with a look so stern, that
+I was unable to say one word to him, or even for a few minutes to my
+mother.
+
+Was not this very intimidating, my dear?
+
+My mother, seeing my concern, seemed to pity me. She called me her good
+child, and kissed me; and told me that my father should not know I had
+made such opposition. He has kindly furnished us with an excuse for
+being so long together, said she.--Come, my dear--dinner will be upon
+table presently--Shall we go down?--And took my hand.
+
+This made me start: What, Madam, go down to let it be supposed we were
+talking of preparations!--O my beloved Mamma, command me not down upon
+such a supposition.
+
+You see, child, that to stay longer together, will be owning that you
+are debating about an absolute duty; and that will not be borne. Did not
+your father himself some days ago tell you, he would be obeyed? I will a
+third time leave you. I must say something by way of excuse for you:
+and that you desire not to go down to dinner--that your modesty on the
+occasion--
+
+O Madam! say not my modesty on such an occasion: for that will be to
+give hope--
+
+And design you not to give hope?--Perverse girl!--Rising and flinging
+from me; take more time for consideration!--Since it is necessary, take
+more time--and when I see you next, let me know what blame I have to
+cast upon myself, or to bear from your father, for my indulgence to you.
+
+She made, however, a little stop at the chamber-door; and seemed to
+expect that I would have besought her to make the gentlest construction
+for me; for, hesitating, she was pleased to say, I suppose you would not
+have me make a report--
+
+O Madam, interrupted I, whose favour can I hope for if I lose my
+mamma's?
+
+To have desired a favourable report, you know, my dear, would have been
+qualifying upon a point that I was too much determined upon, to give
+room for any of my friends to think I have the least hesitation about
+it. And so my mother went down stairs.
+
+I will deposit thus far; and, as I know you will not think me too minute
+in the relation of particulars so very interesting to one you honour
+with your love, proceed in the same way. As matters stand, I don't care
+to have papers, so freely written, about me.
+
+Pray let Robert call every day, if you can spare him, whether I have any
+thing ready or not.
+
+I should be glad you would not send him empty handed. What a generosity
+will it be in you, to write as frequently from friendship, as I am
+forced to do from misfortune! The letters being taken away will be an
+assurance that you have them. As I shall write and deposit as I have
+opportunity, the formality of super and sub-scription will be excused.
+For I need not say how much I am
+
+Your sincere and ever affectionate, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE
+
+
+My mother, on her return, which was as soon as she had dined, was
+pleased to inform me, that she told my father, on his questioning her
+about my cheerul compliance (for, it seems, the cheerful was all that
+was doubted) that she was willing, on so material a point, to give
+a child whom she had so much reason to love (as she condescended to
+acknowledge were her words) liberty to say all that was in her heart to
+say, that her compliance might be the freer: letting him know, that
+when he came up, she was attending to my pleas; for that she found I had
+rather not marry at all.
+
+She told me, that to this my father angrily said, let her take
+care--let her take care--that she give me not ground to suspect her of
+a preference somewhere else. But, if it be to ease her heart, and not to
+dispute my will, you may hear her out.
+
+So, Clary, said my mother, I am returned in a temper accordingly: and I
+hope you will not again, by your peremptoriness, shew me how I ought to
+treat you.
+
+Indeed, Madam, you did me justice to say, I have no inclination to marry
+at all. I have not, I hope, made myself so very unuseful in my papa's
+family, as--
+
+No more of your merits, Clary! You have been a good child. You have
+eased me of all the family cares: but do not now give more than ever
+you relieved me from. You have been amply repaid in the reputation
+your skill and management have given you: but now there is soon to be a
+period to all those assistances from you. If you marry, there will be
+a natural, and, if to please us, a desirable period; because your own
+family will employ all your talents in that way: if you do not, there
+will be a period likewise, but not a natural one--you understand me,
+child.
+
+I wept.
+
+I have made inquiry already after a housekeeper. I would have had your
+good Norton; but I suppose you will yourself wish to have the worthy
+woman with you. If you desire it, that shall be agreed upon for you.
+
+But, why, dearest Madam, why am I, the youngest, to be precipitated into
+a state, that I am very far from wishing to enter into with any body?
+
+You are going to question me, I suppose, why your sister is not thought
+of for Mr. Solmes?
+
+I hope, Madam, it will not displease you if I were.
+
+I might refer you for an answer to your father.--Mr. Solmes has reasons
+for preferring you--
+
+And I have reasons, Madam, for disliking him. And why I am--
+
+This quickness upon me, interrupted my mother, is not to be borne! I am
+gone, and your father comes, if I can do no good with you.
+
+O Madam, I would rather die, than--
+
+She put her hand to my mouth--No peremptoriness, Clary Harlowe: once you
+declare yourself inflexible, I have done.
+
+I wept for vexation. This is all, all, my brother's doings--his grasping
+views--
+
+No reflections upon your brother: he has entirely the honour of the
+family at heart.
+
+I would no more dishonour my family, Madam, than my brother would.
+
+I believe it: but I hope you will allow your father, and me, and your
+uncles, to judge what will do it honour, what dishonour.
+
+I then offered to live single; never to marry at all; or never but with
+their full approbation.
+
+If you mean to shew your duty, and your obedience, Clary, you must shew
+it in our way, not in your own.
+
+I hope, Madam, that I have not so behaved hitherto, as to render such a
+trial of my obedience necessary.
+
+Yes, Clary, I cannot but say that you have hitherto behaved extremely
+well: but you have had no trials till now: and I hope, that now you are
+called to one, you will not fail in it. Parents, proceeded she, when
+children are young, are pleased with every thing they do. You have been
+a good child upon the whole: but we have hitherto rather complied with
+you, than you with us. Now that you are grown up to marriageable years,
+is the test; especially as your grandfather has made you independent, as
+we may say, in preference to those who had prior expectations upon that
+estate.
+
+Madam, my grandfather knew, and expressly mentioned in his will his
+desire, that my father will more than make it up to my sister. I did
+nothing but what I thought my duty to procure his favour. It was rather
+a mark of his affection, than any advantage to me: For, do I either
+seek or wish to be independent? Were I to be queen of the universe, that
+dignity should not absolve me from my duty to you and to my father. I
+would kneel for your blessings, were it in the presence of millions--so
+that--
+
+I am loth to interrupt you, Clary; though you could more than once break
+in upon me. You are young and unbroken: but, with all this ostentation
+of your duty, I desire you to shew a little more deference to me when I
+am speaking.
+
+I beg your pardon, dear Madam, and your patience with me on such an
+occasion as this. If I did not speak with earnestness upon it, I should
+be supposed to have only maidenly objections against a man I never can
+endure.
+
+Clary Harlowe--!
+
+Dearest, dearest Madam, permit me to speak what I have to say, this
+once--It is hard, it is very hard, to be forbidden to enter into
+the cause of all these misunderstandings, because I must not speak
+disrespectfully of one who supposes me in the way of his ambition, and
+treats me like a slave--
+
+Whither, whither, Clary--
+
+My dearest Mamma!--My duty will not permit me so far to suppose my
+father arbitrary, as to make a plea of that arbitrariness to you--
+
+How now, Clary!--O girl!
+
+Your patience, my dearest Mamma:--you were pleased to say, you would
+hear me with patience.--PERSON in a man is nothing, because I am
+supposed to be prudent: so my eye is to be disgusted, and my reason not
+convinced--
+
+Girl, girl!
+
+Thus are my imputed good qualities to be made my punishment; and I am to
+wedded to a monster--
+
+[Astonishing!--Can this, Clarissa, be from you?
+
+The man, Madam, person and mind, is a monster in my eye.]--And that
+I may be induced to bear this treatment, I am to be complimented with
+being indifferent to all men: yet, at other times, and to serve other
+purposes, be thought prepossessed in favour of a man against whose moral
+character lie just objections.--Confined, as if, like the giddiest of
+creatures, I would run away with this man, and disgrace my whole family!
+O my dearest Mamma! who can be patient under such treatment?
+
+Now, Clary, I suppose you will allow me to speak. I think I have had
+patience indeed with you.--Could I have thought--but I will put all upon
+a short issue. Your mother, Clarissa, shall shew you an example of that
+patience you so boldly claim from her, without having any yourself.
+
+O my dear, how my mother's condescension distressed me at the
+time!--Infinitely more distressed me, than rigour could have done. But
+she knew, she was to be sure aware, that she was put upon a harsh, upon
+an unreasonable service, let me say, or she would not, she could not,
+have had so much patience with me.
+
+Let me tell you then, proceeded she, that all lies in a small compass,
+as your father said.--You have been hitherto, as you are pretty ready to
+plead, a dutiful child. You have indeed had no cause to be otherwise. No
+child was ever more favoured. Whether you will discredit all your past
+behaviour; whether, at a time and upon an occasion, that the highest
+instance of duty is expected from you (an instance that is to crown
+all); and when you declare that your heart is free--you will give that
+instance; or whether, having a view to the independence you may claim,
+(for so, Clary, whatever be your motive, it will be judged,) and which
+any man you favour, can assert for you against us all; or rather for
+himself in spite of us--whether, I say, you will break with us all;
+and stand in defiance of a jealous father, needlessly jealous, I will
+venture to say, of the prerogatives of his sex, as to me, and still ten
+times more jealous of the authority of a father;--this is now the point
+with us. You know your father has made it a point; and did he ever give
+up one he thought he had a right to carry?
+
+Too true, thought I to myself! And now my brother has engaged my father,
+his fine scheme will walk alone, without needing his leading-strings;
+and it is become my father's will that I oppose; not my brother's
+grasping views.
+
+I was silent. To say the truth, I was just then sullenly silent. My
+heart was too big. I thought it was hard to be thus given up by
+my mother; and that she should make a will so uncontroulable as my
+brother's, her will.--My mother, my dear, though I must not say so, was
+not obliged to marry against her liking. My mother loved my father.
+
+My silence availed me still less.
+
+I see, my dear, said she, that you are convinced. Now, my good
+child--now, my Clary, do I love you! It shall not be known, that you
+have argued with me at all. All shall be imputed to that modesty which
+has ever so much distinguished you. You shall have the full merit of
+your resignation.
+
+I wept.
+
+She tenderly wiped the tears from my eyes, and kissed my cheek--Your
+father expects you down with a cheerful countenance--but I will excuse
+your going. All your scruples, you see, have met with an indulgence
+truly maternal from me. I rejoice in the hope that you are convinced.
+This indeed seems to be a proof of the truth of your agreeable
+declaration, that your heart is free.
+
+Did not this seem to border upon cruelty, my dear, in so indulgent a
+mother?--It would be wicked [would it not] to suppose my mother capable
+of art?--But she is put upon it, and obliged to take methods to which
+her heart is naturally above stooping; and all intended for my good,
+because she sees that no arguing will be admitted any where else!
+
+I will go down, proceeded she, and excuse your attendance at afternoon
+tea, as I did to dinner: for I know you will have some little
+reluctances to subdue. I will allow you those; and also some little
+natural shynesses--and so you shall not come down, if you chuse not to
+come down. Only, my dear, do not disgrace my report when you come to
+supper. And be sure behave as you used to do to your brother and sister;
+for your behaviour to them will be one test of your cheerful obedience
+to us. I advise as a friend, you see, rather than command as a
+mother--So adieu, my love. And again she kissed me; and was going.
+
+O my dear Mamma, said I, forgive me!--But surely you cannot believe, I
+can ever think of having that man!
+
+She was very angry, and seemed to be greatly disappointed. She
+threatened to turn me over to my father and uncles:--she however bid
+me (generously bid me) consider, what a handle I gave to my brother
+and sister, if I thought they had views to serve by making my uncles
+dissatisfied with me.
+
+I, said she, in a milder accent, have early said all that I thought
+could be said against the present proposal, on a supposition, that
+you, who have refused several other (whom I own to be preferable as to
+person) would not approve of it; and could I have succeeded, you,
+Clary, had never heard of it. But if I could not, how can you expect
+to prevail? My great ends in the task I have undertaken, are the
+preservation of the family peace so likely to be overturned; to
+reinstate you in the affections of your father and uncles: and to
+preserve you from a man of violence.--Your father, you must needs think
+will flame out upon your refusal to comply: your uncles are so
+
+thoroughly convinced of the consistency of the measure with their
+favourite views of aggrandizing the family, that they are as much
+determined as your father: your aunt Hervey and your uncle Hervey are of
+the same party. And it is hard, if a father and mother, and uncles, and
+aunt, all conjoined, cannot be allowed to direct your choice--surely, my
+dear girl, proceeded she [for I was silent all this time], it cannot be
+that you are the more averse, because the family views will be promoted
+by the match--this, I assure you, is what every body must think, if
+you comply not. Nor, while the man, so obnoxious to us all, remains
+unmarried, and buzzes about you, will the strongest wishes to live
+single, be in the least regarded. And well you know, that were Mr.
+Lovelace an angel, and your father had made it a point that you should
+not have him, it would be in vain to dispute his will. As to the
+prohibition laid upon you (much as I will own against my liking), that
+is owing to the belief that you corresponded by Miss Howe's means with
+that man; nor do I doubt that you did so.
+
+I answered to every article, in such a manner, as I am sure would have
+satisfied her, could she have been permitted to judge for herself; and I
+then inveighed with bitterness against the disgraceful prohibitions laid
+upon me.
+
+They would serve to shew me, she was pleased to say, how much in earnest
+my father was. They might be taken off, whenever I thought fit, and no
+harm done, nor disgrace received. But if I were to be contumacious, I
+might thank myself for all that would follow.
+
+I sighed. I wept. I was silent.
+
+Shall I, Clary, said she, shall I tell your father that these
+prohibitions are as unnecessary as I hoped they would be? That you know
+your duty, and will not offer to controvert his will? What say you, my
+love?
+
+O Madam, what can I say to questions so indulgently put? I do indeed
+know my duty: no creature in the world is more willing to practise
+it: but, pardon me, dearest Madam, if I say, that I must bear these
+prohibitions, if I am to pay so dear to have them taken off.
+
+Determined and perverse, my dear mamma called me: and after walking
+twice or thrice in anger about the room, she turned to me: Your
+heart free, Clarissa! How can you tell me your heart is free? Such
+extraordinary prepossessions to a particular person must be owing to
+extraordinary prepossessions in another's favour! Tell me, Clary, and
+tell me truly--Do you not continue to correspond with Mr. Lovelace?
+
+Dearest Madam, replied I, you know my motives: to prevent mischief, I
+answered his letters. The reasons for our apprehensions of this sort are
+not over.
+
+I own to you, Clary, (although now I would not have it known,) that
+I once thought a little qualifying among such violent spirits was not
+amiss. I did not know but all things would come round again by the
+mediation of Lord M. and his two sisters: but as they all three think
+proper to resent for their nephew; and as their nephew thinks fit to
+defy us all; and as terms are offered, on the other hand, that could
+not be asked, which will very probably prevent your grandfather's estate
+going out of the family, and may be a means to bring still greater into
+it; I see not, that the continuance of your correspondence with him
+either can or ought to be permitted. I therefore now forbid it to you,
+as you value my favour.
+
+Be pleased, Madam, only to advise me how to break it off with safety to
+my brother and uncles; and it is all I wish for. Would to heaven, the
+man so hated had not the pretence to make of having been too violently
+treated, when he meant peace and reconciliation! It would always have
+been in my own power to have broke with him. His reputed immoralities
+would have given me a just pretence at any time to do so. But, Madam, as
+my uncles and my brother will keep no measures; as he has heard what the
+view is; and his regard for me from resenting their violent treatment
+of him and his family; what can I do? Would you have me, Madam, make him
+desperate?
+
+The law will protect us, child! offended magistracy will assert itself--
+
+But, Madam, may not some dreadful mischief first happen?--The law
+asserts not itself, till it is offended.
+
+You have made offers, Clary, if you might be obliged in the point in
+question--Are you really in earnest, were you to be complied with, to
+break off all correspondence with Mr. Lovelace?--Let me know this.
+
+Indeed I am; and I will. You, Madam, shall see all the letters that
+have passed between us. You shall see I have given him no encouragement
+independent of my duty. And when you have seen them, you will be
+better able to direct me how, on the condition I have offered, to break
+entirely with him.
+
+I take you at your word, Clarissa--Give me his letters; and the copies
+of yours.
+
+I am sure, Madam, you will keep the knowledge that I write, and what I
+write--
+
+No conditions with your mother--surely my prudence may be trusted to.
+
+I begged her pardon; and besought her to take the key of the private
+drawer in my escritoire, where they lay, that she herself might see that
+I had no reserves to my mother.
+
+She did; and took all his letters, and the copies of
+mine.--Unconditioned with, she was pleased to say, they shall be yours
+again, unseen by any body else.
+
+I thanked her; and she withdrew to read them; saying, she would return
+them, when she had.
+
+
+***
+
+
+You, my dear, have seen all the letters that passed between Mr. Lovelace
+and me, till my last return from you. You have acknowledged, that he has
+nothing to boast of from them. Three others I have received since, by
+the private conveyance I told you of: the last I have not yet answered.
+
+In these three, as in those you have seen, after having besought my
+favour, and, in the most earnest manner, professed the ardour of his
+passion for me; and set forth the indignities done him; the defiances
+my brother throws out against him in all companies; the menaces, and
+hostile appearance of my uncles wherever they go; and the methods they
+take to defame him; he declares, 'That neither his own honour, nor
+the honour of his family, (involved as that is in the undistinguishing
+reflection cast upon him for an unhappy affair which he would have
+shunned, but could not) permit him to bear these confirmed indignities:
+that as my inclinations, if not favourable to him, cannot be, nor are,
+to such a man as the newly-introduced Solmes, he is interested the more
+to resent my brother's behaviour; who to every body avows his rancour
+and malice; and glories in the probability he has, through the address
+of this Solmes, of mortifying me, and avenging himself on him: that
+it is impossible he should not think himself concerned to frustrate a
+measure so directly levelled at him, had he not a still higher motive
+for hoping to frustrate it: that I must forgive him, if he enter into
+conference with Solmes upon it. He earnestly insists (upon what he has
+so often proposed) that I will give him leave, in company with Lord
+M. to wait upon my uncles, and even upon my father--and he promises
+patience, if new provocations, absolutely beneath a man to bear, be not
+given:' which by the way I am far from being able to engage for.
+
+In my answer, I absolutely declare, as I tell him I have often done,
+'That he is to expect no favour from me against the approbation of my
+friends: that I am sure their consents for his visiting any of them
+will never be obtained: that I will not be either so undutiful, or so
+indiscreet, as to suffer my interests to be separated from the interests
+of my family, for any man upon earth: that I do not think myself obliged
+to him for the forbearance I desire one flaming spirit to have with
+others: that in this desire I require nothing of him, but what prudence,
+justice, and the laws of his country require: that if he has any
+expectations of favour from me, on that account, he deceives himself:
+that I have no inclination, as I have often told him, to change my
+condition: that I cannot allow myself to correspond with him any longer
+in this clandestine manner: it is mean, low, undutiful, I tell him; and
+has a giddy appearance, which cannot be excused: that therefore he is
+not to expect that I will continue it.
+
+To this in his last, among other things, he replies, 'That if I am
+actually determined to break off all correspondence with him, he must
+conclude, that it is with a view to become the wife of a man, whom no
+woman of honour and fortune can think tolerable. And in that case, I
+must excuse him for saying, that he shall neither be able to bear the
+thoughts of losing for ever a person in whom all his present and all his
+future hopes are centred; nor support himself with patience under the
+insolent triumphs of my brother upon it. But that nevertheless he will
+not threaten either his own life, or that of any other man. He must take
+his resolutions as such a dreaded event shall impel him at the time. If
+he shall know that it will have my consent, he must endeavour to resign
+to his destiny: but if it be brought about by compulsion, he shall not
+be able to answer for the consequence.'
+
+I will send you these letters for your perusal in a few days. I would
+enclose them; but that it is possible something may happen, which may
+make my mother require to re-peruse them. When you see them, you will
+observe how he endeavours to hold me to this correspondence.
+
+
+***
+
+
+In about an hour my mother returned. Take your letters, Clary: I have
+nothing, she was pleased to say, to tax your discretion with, as to the
+wording of yours to him: you have even kept up a proper dignity, as
+well as observed all the rules of decorum; and you have resented, as you
+ought to resent, his menacing invectives. In a word, I see not, that he
+can form the least expectations, from what you have written, that you
+will encourage the passion he avows for you. But does he not avow his
+passion? Have you the least doubt about what must be the issue of this
+correspondence, if continued? And do you yourself think, when you know
+the avowed hatred of one side, and he declared defiances of the other,
+that this can be, that it ought to be a match?
+
+By no means it can, Madam; you will be pleased to observed, that I have
+said as much to him. But now, Madam, that the whole correspondence
+is before you, I beg your commands what to do in a situation so very
+disagreeable.
+
+One thing I will tell you, Clary--but I charge you, as you would not
+have me question the generosity of your spirit, to take no advantage
+of it, either mentally or verbally; that I am so much pleased with the
+offer of your keys to me, made in so cheerful and unreserved a manner,
+and in the prudence you have shewn in your letters, that were it
+practicable to bring every one, or your father only, into my opinion, I
+should readily leave all the rest to your discretion, reserving only to
+myself the direction or approbation of your future letters; and to see,
+that you broke off the correspondence as soon as possible. But as it is
+not, and as I know your father would have no patience with you, should
+it be acknowledged that you correspond with Mr. Lovelace, or that you
+have corresponded with him since the time he prohibited you to do so;
+I forbid you to continue such a liberty--Yet, as the case is difficult,
+let me ask you, What you yourself can propose? Your heart, you say, is
+free. Your own, that you cannot think, as matters circumstanced, that
+a match with a man so obnoxious as he now is to us all, is proper to
+be thought of: What do you propose to do?--What, Clary, are your own
+thoughts of the matter?
+
+Without hesitation thus I answered--What I humbly propose is
+this:--'That I will write to Mr. Lovelace (for I have not answered his
+last) that he has nothing to do between my father and me: that I
+neither ask his advice nor need it: but that since he thinks he has some
+pretence for interfering, because of my brother's avowal of the interest
+of Mr. Solmes in displeasure to him, I will assure him (without giving
+him any reason to impute the assurance to be in the least favourable to
+himself) that I will never be that man's.' And if, proceeded I, I
+may never be permitted to give him this assurance; and Mr. Solmes, in
+consequence of it, be discouraged from prosecuting his address; let Mr.
+Lovelace be satisfied or dissatisfied, I will go no farther; nor write
+another line to him; nor ever see him more, if I can avoid it: and I
+shall have a good excuse for it, without bringing in any of my family.
+
+Ah! my love!--But what shall we do about the terms Mr. Solmes offers?
+Those are the inducements with every body. He has even given hopes to
+your brother that he will make exchanges of estates; or, at least, that
+he will purchase the northern one; for you know it must be entirely
+consistent with the family-views, that we increase our interest in this
+country. Your brother, in short, has given a plan that captivates us
+all. And a family so rich in all its branches, and that has its views to
+honour, must be pleased to see a very great probability of taking rank
+one day among the principal in the kingdom.
+
+And for the sake of these views, for the sake of this plan of my
+brother's, am I, Madam, to be given in marriage to a man I can never
+endure!--O my dear Mamma, save me, save me, if you can, from this heavy
+evil.--I had rather be buried alive, indeed I had, than have that man!
+
+She chid me for my vehemence; but was so good as to tell me, That she
+would sound my uncle Harlowe, who was then below; and if he encouraged
+her (or would engage to second her) she would venture to talk to my
+father herself; and I should hear further in the morning.
+
+She went down to tea, and kindly undertook to excuse my attendance at
+supper.
+
+But is it not a sad thing, I repeat, to be obliged to stand in
+opposition to the will of such a mother? Why, as I often say to myself,
+was such a man as this Solmes fixed upon? The only man in the world,
+surely, that could offer so much, and deserve so little!
+
+Little indeed does he deserve!--Why, my dear, the man has the most
+indifferent of characters. Every mouth is opened against him for his
+sordid ways--A foolish man, to be so base-minded!--When the difference
+between the obtaining of a fame for generosity, and incurring the
+censure of being a miser, will not, prudently managed, cost fifty pounds
+a year.
+
+What a name have you got, at a less expense? And what an opportunity had
+he of obtaining credit at a very small one, succeeding such a wretched
+creature as Sir Oliver, in fortunes so vast?--Yet has he so behaved,
+that the common phrase is applied to him, That Sir Oliver will never be
+dead while Mr. Solmes lives.
+
+The world, as I have often thought, ill-natured as it is said to be, is
+generally more just in characters (speaking by what it feels) than is
+usually apprehended: and those who complain most of its censoriousness,
+perhaps should look inwardly for the occasion oftener than they do.
+
+My heart is a little at ease, on the hopes that my mother will be able
+to procure favour for me, and a deliverance from this man; and so I
+have leisure to moralize. But if I had not, I should not forbear to
+intermingle occasionally these sorts of remarks, because you command
+me never to omit them when they occur to my mind: and not to be able
+to make them, even in a more affecting situation, when one sits down
+to write, would shew one's self more engaged to self, and to one's own
+concerns, than attentive to the wishes of a friend. If it be said, that
+it is natural so to be, what makes that nature, on occasions where a
+friend may be obliged, or reminded of a piece of instruction, which
+(writing down) one's self may be the better for, but a fault; which it
+would set a person above nature to subdue?
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SAT. MAR. 4.
+
+
+Would you not have thought something might have been obtained in my
+favour, from an offer so reasonable, from an expedient so proper, as I
+imagine, to put a tolerable end, as from myself, to a correspondence I
+hardly know how otherwise, with safety to some of my family, to get rid
+of?--But my brother's plan, (which my mother spoke of, and of which I
+have in vain endeavoured to procure a copy, with a design to take it to
+pieces, and expose it, as I question not there is room to do,) joined
+with my father's impatience of contradiction, are irresistible.
+
+I have not been in bed all night; nor am I in the least drowsy.
+Expectation, and hope, and doubt, (an uneasy state!) kept me
+sufficiently wakeful. I stept down at my usual time, that it might not
+be known I had not been in bed; and gave directions in the family way.
+
+About eight o'clock, Shorey came to me from my mother with orders to
+attend her in her chamber.
+
+My mother had been weeping, I saw by her eyes: but her aspect seemed to
+be less tender, and less affectionate, than the day before; and this, as
+soon as I entered into her presence, struck me with an awe, which gave a
+great damp to my spirits.
+
+Sit down, Clary Harlowe; I shall talk to you by-and-by: and continued
+looking into a drawer among laces and linens, in a way neither busy nor
+unbusy.
+
+I believe it was a quarter of an hour before she spoke to me (my heart
+throbbing with the suspense all the time); and then she asked me coldly,
+What directions I had given for the day?
+
+I shewed her the bill of fare for this day, and to-morrow, if, I said,
+it pleased her to approve of it.
+
+She made a small alteration in it; but with an air so cold and so
+solemn, as added to my emotions.
+
+Mr. Harlowe talks of dining out to-day, I think, at my brother
+Antony's--
+
+Mr. Harlowe!--Not my father!--Have I not then a father!--thought I.
+
+Sit down when I bid you.
+
+I sat down.
+
+You look very sullen, Clary.
+
+I hope not, Madam.
+
+If children would always be children--parents--And there she stopt.
+
+She then went to her toilette, and looked into the glass, and gave half
+a sigh--the other half, as if she would not have sighed if she could
+have helped it, she gently hem'd away.
+
+I don't love to see the girl look so sullen.
+
+Indeed, Madam, I am not sullen.--And I arose, and, turning from her,
+drew out my handkerchief; for the tears ran down my cheeks.
+
+I thought, by the glass before me, I saw the mother in her softened eye
+cast towards me. But her words confirmed not the hoped-for tenderness.
+
+One of the most provoking things in this world is, to have people cry
+for what they can help!
+
+I wish to heaven I could, Madam!--And I sobbed again.
+
+Tears of penitence and sobs of perverseness are mighty well suited!--You
+may go up to your chamber. I shall talk with you by-and-by.
+
+I courtesied with reverence.
+
+Mock me not with outward gestures of respect. The heart, Clary, is what
+I want.
+
+Indeed, Madam, you have it. It is not so much mine as my Mamma's!
+
+Fine talking!--As somebody says, If words were to pass for duty,
+Clarissa Harlowe would be the dutifulest child breathing.
+
+God bless that somebody!--Be it whom it will, God bless that
+somebody!--And I courtesied, and, pursuant to her last command, was
+going.
+
+She seemed struck; but was to be angry with me.
+
+So turning from me, she spoke with quickness, Whither now, Clary
+Harlowe?
+
+You commanded me, Madam, to go to my chamber.
+
+I see you are very ready to go out of my presence.--Is your compliance
+the effect of sullenness, or obedience?--You are very ready to leave me.
+
+I could hold no longer; but threw myself at her feet: O my dearest
+Mamma! Let me know all I am to suffer! Let me know what I am to be!--I
+will bear it, if I can bear it: but your displeasure I cannot bear!
+
+Leave me, leave me, Clary Harlowe!--No kneeling!--Limbs so supple! Will
+so stubborn!--Rise, I tell you.
+
+I cannot rise! I will disobey my Mamma, when she bids me leave her
+without being reconciled to me! No sullens, my Mamma: no perverseness:
+but, worse than either: this is direct disobedience!--Yet tear not
+yourself from me! [wrapping my arms about her as I kneeled; she
+struggling to get from me; my face lifted up to hers, with eyes
+running over, that spoke not my heart if they were not all humility and
+reverence] You must not, must not, tear yourself from me! [for still
+the dear lady struggled, and looked this way and that, all in a sweet
+disorder, as if she knew not what to do].--I will neither rise, nor
+leave you, nor let you go, till you say you are not angry with me.
+
+O thou ever-moving child of my heart! [folding her dear arms about my
+neck, as mine embraced her knees] Why was this task--But leave me!--You
+have discomposed me beyond expression! Leave me, my dear!--I won't be
+angry with you--if I can help it--if you'll be good.
+
+I arose trembling, and, hardly knowing what I did, or how I stood or
+walked, withdrew to my chamber. My Hannah followed me as soon as she
+heard me quit my mother's presence, and with salts and spring-water just
+kept me from fainting; and that was as much as she could do. It was near
+two hours before I could so far recover myself as to take up my pen, to
+write to you how unhappily my hopes have ended.
+
+My mother went down to breakfast. I was not fit to appear: but if I
+had been better, I suppose I should not have been sent for; since the
+permission for my attending her down, was given by my father (when in
+my chamber) only on condition that she found me worthy of the name of
+daughter. That, I doubt, I shall never be in his opinion, if he be not
+brought to change his mind as to this Mr. Solmes.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE [IN ANSWER TO LETTER XV.] SAT. MARCH
+4, 12 O'CLOCK.
+
+
+Hannah has just now brought me from the usual place your favour of
+yesterday. The contents of it have made me very thoughtful; and you
+will have an answer in my gravest style.--I to have that Mr. Solmes!--No
+indeed!--I will sooner--But I will write first to those passages in your
+letter which are less concerning, that I may touch upon this part with
+more patience.
+
+As to what you mention of my sister's value for Mr. Lovelace, I am not
+very much surprised at it. She takes such officious pains, and it is so
+much her subject, to have it thought that she never did, and never could
+like him, that she gives but too much room to suspect that she does. She
+never tells the story of their parting, and of her refusal of him, but
+her colour rises, she looks with disdain upon me, and mingles anger with
+the airs she gives herself:--anger as well as airs, demonstrating, that
+she refused a man whom she thought worth accepting: Where else is the
+reason either for anger or boast?--Poor Bella! She is to be pitied--she
+cannot either like or dislike with temper! Would to heaven she had been
+mistress of all her wishes!--Would to heaven she had!
+
+As to what you say of my giving up to my father's controul the estate
+devised me, my motives at the time, as you acknowledge, were not
+blamable. Your advice to me on the subject was grounded, as I remember,
+on your good opinion of me; believing that I should not make a bad use
+of the power willed me. Neither you nor I, my dear, although you now
+assume the air of a diviner, [pardon me] could have believed that would
+have happened which has happened, as to my father's part particularly.
+You were indeed jealous of my brother's views against me; or rather of
+his predominant love of himself; but I did not think so hardly of my
+brother and sister as you always did. You never loved them; and ill-will
+has eyes ever open to the faulty side; as good-will or love is blind
+even to real imperfections. I will briefly recollect my motives.
+
+I found jealousies and uneasiness rising in every breast, where all
+before was unity and love. The honoured testator was reflected upon: a
+second childhood was attributed to him; and I was censured, as having
+taken advantage of it. All young creatures, thought I, more or less,
+covet independency; but those who wish most for it, are seldom the
+fittest to be trusted either with the government of themselves, or with
+power over others. This is certainly a very high and unusual devise to
+so young a creature. We should not aim at all we have power to do. To
+take all that good-nature, or indulgence, or good opinion confers,
+shews a want of moderation, and a graspingness that is unworthy of that
+indulgence; and are bad indications of the use that may be made of the
+power bequeathed. It is true, thought I, that I have formed agreeable
+schemes of making others as happy as myself, by the proper discharge of
+the stewardship intrusted to me. [Are not all estates stewardships,
+my dear?] But let me examine myself: Is not vanity, or secret love
+of praise, a principal motive with me at the bottom?--Ought I not to
+suspect my own heart? If I set up for myself, puffed up with every one's
+good opinion, may I not be left to myself?--Every one's eyes are upon
+the conduct, upon the visits, upon the visiters, of a young creature
+of our sex, made independent: And are not such subjected, more than any
+others, to the attempts of enterprisers and fortune-seekers?--And then,
+left to myself, should I take a wrong step, though with ever so good an
+intention, how many should I have to triumph over me, how few to pity
+me!--The more of the one, and the fewer of the other, for having aimed
+at excelling.
+
+These were some of my reflections at the time: and I have no doubt, but
+that in the same situation I should do the very same thing; and that
+upon the maturest deliberation. Who can command or foresee events? To
+act up to our best judgments at the time, is all we can do. If I have
+erred, 'tis to worldly wisdom only that I have erred. If we suffer by an
+act of duty, or even by an act of generosity, is it not pleasurable on
+reflection, that the fault is in others, rather than in ourselves?--I
+had much rather have reason to think others unkind, than that they
+should have any to think me undutiful.
+
+And so, my dear, I am sure had you.
+
+And now for the most concerning part of your letter.
+
+You think I must of necessity, as matters are circumstanced, be Solmes's
+wife. I will not be very rash, my dear, in protesting to the contrary:
+but I think it never can, and, what is still more, never ought to
+be!--My temper, I know, is depended upon. But I have heretofore said,*
+that I have something in me of my father's family, as well as of my
+mother's. And have I any encouragement to follow too implicitly the
+example which my mother sets of meekness, and resignedness to the wills
+of others? Is she not for ever obliged (as she was pleased to hint to
+me) to be of the forbearing side? In my mother's case, your observation
+I must own is verified, that those who will bear much, shall have much
+to bear.** What is it, as she says, that she has not sacrificed to
+peace?--Yet, has she by her sacrifices always found the peace she has
+deserved to find? Indeed, no!--I am afraid the very contrary. And often
+and often have I had reason (on her account) to reflect, that we poor
+mortals, by our over-solicitude to preserve undisturbed the qualities we
+are constitutionally fond of, frequently lose the benefits we propose
+to ourselves from them: since the designing and encroaching (finding out
+what we most fear to forfeit) direct their batteries against these our
+weaker places, and, making an artillery (if I may so phrase it) of our
+hopes and fears, play upon us at their pleasure.
+
+
+     * See Letter IX.
+
+     ** See Letter X.
+
+
+Steadiness of mind, (a quality which the ill-bred and censorious deny to
+any of our sex) when we are absolutely convinced of being in the right
+[otherwise it is not steadiness, but obstinacy] and when it is exerted
+in material cases, is a quality, which, as my good Dr. Lewen was wont to
+say, brings great credit to the possessor of it; at the same time that
+it usually, when tried and known, raises such above the attempts of
+the meanly machinating. He used therefore to inculcate upon me this
+steadiness, upon laudable convictions. And why may I not think that I am
+now put upon a proper exercise of it?
+
+I said above, that I never can be, that I never ought to be, Mrs.
+Solmes.--I repeat, that I ought not: for surely, my dear, I should not
+give up to my brother's ambition the happiness of my future life. Surely
+I ought not to be the instrument of depriving Mr. Solmes's relations of
+their natural rights and reversionary prospects, for the sake of further
+aggrandizing a family (although that I am of) which already lives
+in great affluence and splendour; and which might be as justly
+dissatisfied, were all that some of it aim at to be obtained, that they
+were not princes, as now they are that they are not peers [For when ever
+was an ambitious mind, as you observe in the case of avarice,* satisfied
+by acquisition?]. The less, surely, ought I to give into these grasping
+views of my brother, as I myself heartily despise the end aimed at; as
+I wish not either to change my state, or better my fortunes; and as I
+am fully persuaded, that happiness and riches are two things, and very
+seldom meet together.
+
+
+     * See Letter X.
+
+
+Yet I dread, I exceedingly dread, the conflicts I know I must
+encounter with. It is possible, that I may be more unhappy from the due
+observation of the good doctor's general precept, than were I to
+yield the point; since what I call steadiness is deemed stubbornness,
+obstinacy, prepossession, by those who have a right to put what
+interpretation they please upon my conduct.
+
+So, my dear, were we perfect (which no one can be) we could not be
+happy in this life, unless those with whom we have to deal (those more
+especially who have any controul upon us) were governed by the same
+principles. But then does not the good Doctor's conclusion recur,--That
+we have nothing to do, but to chuse what is right; to be steady in the
+pursuit of it; and to leave the issue to Providence?
+
+This, if you approve of my motives, (and if you don't, pray inform me)
+must be my aim in the present case.
+
+But what then can I plead for a palliation to myself of my mother's
+sufferings on my account? Perhaps this consideration will carry some
+force with it--That her difficulties cannot last long; only till
+this great struggle shall be one way or other determined--Whereas my
+unhappiness, if I comply, will (from an aversion not to be overcome) be
+for life. To which let me add, That as I have reason to think that the
+present measures are not entered upon with her own natural liking, she
+will have the less pain, should they want the success which I think in
+my heart they ought to want.
+
+I have run a great length in a very little time. The subject touched me
+to the quick. My reflections upon it will give you reason to expect from
+me a perhaps too steady behaviour in a new conference, which, I find, I
+must have with my mother. My father and brother, as she was pleased
+to tell me, dine at my uncle Antony's; and that, as I have reason to
+believe, on purpose to give an opportunity for it.
+
+Hannah informs me, that she heard my father high and angry with my
+mother, at taking leave of her: I suppose for being to favourable to me;
+for Hannah heard her say, as in tears, 'Indeed, Mr. Harlowe, you greatly
+distress me!--The poor girl does not deserve--' Hannah heard no more,
+but that he said, he would break somebody's heart--Mine, I suppose--Not
+my mother's, I hope.
+
+As only my sister dines with my mother, I thought I should have been
+commanded down: but she sent me up a plate from her table. I continued
+my writing. I could not touch a morsel. I ordered Hannah however to eat
+of it, that I might not be thought sullen.
+
+Before I conclude this, I will see whether any thing offers from either
+of my private correspondencies, that will make it proper to add to it;
+and will take a turn in the wood-yard and garden for that purpose.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I am stopped. Hannah shall deposit this. She was ordered by my mother
+(who asked where I was) to tell me, that she would come up and talk with
+me in my own closet.--She is coming! Adieu, my dear.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SAT. AFTERNOON.
+
+
+The expected conference is over: but my difficulties are increased.
+This, as my mother was pleased to tell me, being the last persuasory
+effort that is to be attempted, I will be particular in the account of
+it as my head and my heart will allow it to be.
+
+I have made, said she, as she entered my room, a short as well as early
+dinner, on purpose to confer with you: and I do assure you, that it will
+be the last conference I shall either be permitted or inclined to hold
+with you on the subject, if you should prove as refractory as it is
+imagined you will prove by some, who are of opinion, that I have not
+the weight with you which my indulgence deserves. But I hope you will
+convince as well them as me of the contrary.
+
+Your father both dines and sups at your uncle's, on purpose to give
+us this opportunity; and, according to the report I shall make on his
+return, (which I have promised shall be a very faithful one,) he will
+take his measures with you.
+
+I was offering to speak--Hear, Clarissa, what I have to tell you, said
+she, before you speak, unless what you have to say will signify to me
+your compliance--Say--Will it?--If it will, you may speak.
+
+I was silent.
+
+She looked with concern and anger upon me--No compliance, I find!--Such
+a dutiful young creature hitherto!--Will you not, can you not, speak as
+I would have you speak?--Then [rejecting me as it were with her hand]
+continue silent.--I, no more than your father, will bear your avowed
+contradiction.
+
+She paused, with a look of expectation, as if she waited for my
+consenting answer.
+
+I was still silent; looking down; the tears in my eyes.
+
+O thou determined girl!--But say--Speak out--Are you resolved to stand
+in opposition to us all, in a point our hearts are set upon?
+
+May I, Madam, be permitted to expostulate?--
+
+To what purpose expostulate with me, Clarissa? Your father is
+determined. Have I not told you there is no receding; that the honour as
+well as the interest of the family is concerned? Be ingenuous: you used
+to be so, even occasionally against yourself:--Who at the long run must
+submit--all of us to you; or you to all of us?--If you intend to yield
+at last if you find you cannot conquer, yield now, and with a grace--for
+yield you must, or be none of our child.
+
+I wept. I knew not what to say; or rather how to express what I had to
+say.
+
+Take notice, that there are flaws in your grandfather's will: not
+a shilling of that estate will be yours, if you do not yield. Your
+grandfather left it to you, as a reward of your duty to him and to
+us--You will justly forfeit it, if--
+
+Permit me, good Madam, to say, that, if it were unjustly bequeathed me,
+I ought not to wish to have it. But I hope Mr. Solmes will be apprised
+of these flaws.
+
+This is very pertly said, Clarissa: but reflect, that the forfeiture of
+that estate, through your opposition, will be attended with the total
+loss of your father's favour: and then how destitute must you be; how
+unable to support yourself; and how many benevolent designs and good
+actions must you give up!
+
+I must accommodate myself, Madam, in the latter case, to my
+circumstance: much only is required where much is given. It becomes me
+to be thankful for what I have had. I have reason to bless you, Madam,
+and my good Mrs. Norton, for bringing me up to be satisfied with little;
+with much less, I will venture to say, than my father's indulgence
+annually confers upon me.--And then I thought of the old Roman and his
+lentils.
+
+What perverseness! said my mother.--But if you depend upon the favour of
+either or both of your uncles, vain will be that dependence: they
+will give you up, I do assure you, if your father does, and absolutely
+renounce you.
+
+I am sorry, Madam, that I have had so little merit as to have made no
+deeper impressions of favour for me in their hearts: but I will love and
+honour them as long as I live.
+
+All this, Clarissa, makes your prepossession in a certain man's favour
+the more evident. Indeed, your brother and sister cannot go any where,
+but they hear of these prepossessions.
+
+It is a great grief to me, Madam, to be made the subject of the public
+talk: but I hope you will have the goodness to excuse me for observing,
+that the authors of my disgrace within doors, the talkers of my
+prepossession without, and the reporters of it from abroad, are
+originally the same persons.
+
+She severely chid me for this.
+
+I received her rebukes in silence.
+
+You are sullen, Clarissa: I see you are sullen.--And she walked about
+the room in anger. Then turning to me--You can bear the imputation of
+sullenness I see!--You have no concern to clear yourself of it. I was
+afraid of telling you all I was enjoined to tell you, in case you were
+to be unpersuadable: but I find that I had a greater opinion of
+your delicacy, of your gentleness, than I needed to have--it cannot
+discompose so steady, so inflexible a young creature, to be told, as I
+now tell you, that the settlements are actually drawn; and that you will
+be called down in a very few days to hear them read, and to sign them:
+for it is impossible, if your heart be free, that you can make the least
+objection to them; except it will be an objection with you, that they
+are so much in your favour, and in the favour of all our family.
+
+I was speechless, absolutely speechless. Although my heart was ready to
+burst, yet could I neither weep nor speak.
+
+I am sorry, said she, for your averseness to this match: [match she was
+pleased to call it!] but there is no help. The honour and interest
+of the family, as your aunt has told you, and as I have told you, are
+concerned; and you must comply.
+
+I was still speechless.
+
+She folded the warm statue, as she was pleased to call me, in her arms;
+and entreated me, for heaven's sake, to comply.
+
+Speech and tears were lent me at the same time.--You have given me life,
+Madam, said I, clasping my uplifted hands together, and falling on one
+knee; a happy one, till now, has your goodness, and my papa's, made it!
+O do not, do not, make all the remainder of it miserable!
+
+Your father, replied she, is resolved not to see you, till he sees you
+as obedient a child as you used to be. You have never been put to a test
+till now, that deserved to be called a test. This is, this must be,
+my last effort with you. Give me hope, my dear child: my peace is
+concerned: I will compound with you but for hope: and yet your
+father will not be satisfied without an implicit, and even a cheerful
+obedience--Give me but hope, child!
+
+To give you hope, my dearest, my most indulgent Mamma, is to give you
+every thing. Can I be honest, if I give a hope that I cannot confirm?
+
+She was very angry. She again called me perverse: she upbraided me with
+regarding only my own prepossessions, and respecting not either her
+peace of mind or my own duty:--'It is a grating thing, said she, for the
+parents of a child, who delighted in her in all the time of her helpless
+infancy, and throughout every stage of her childhood; and in every
+part of her education to womanhood, because of the promises she gave of
+proving the most grateful and dutiful of children; to find, just when
+the time arrived which should crown their wishes, that child stand in
+the way of her own happiness, and her parents' comfort,and, refusing an
+excellent offer and noble settlements, give suspicions to her anxious
+friends, that she would become the property of a vile rake and
+libertine, who (be the occasion what it will) defies her family, and has
+actually embrued his hands in her brother's blood.
+
+'I have had a very hard time of it, said she, between your father and
+you; for, seeing your dislike, I have more than once pleaded for you:
+but all to no purpose. I am only treated as a too fond mother, who,
+from motives of a blamable indulgence, encourage a child to stand in
+opposition to a father's will. I am charged with dividing the family
+into two parts; I and my youngest daughter standing against my husband,
+his two brothers, my son, my eldest daughter, and my sister Hervey.
+I have been told, that I must be convinced of the fitness as well
+as advantage to the whole (your brother and Mr. Lovelace out of the
+question) of carrying the contract with Mr. Solmes, on which so many
+contracts depend, into execution.
+
+'Your father's heart, I tell you once more, is in it: he has declared,
+that he had rather have no daughter in you, than one he cannot dispose
+of for your own good: especially if you have owned, that your heart is
+free; and as the general good of his whole family is to be promoted
+by your obedience. He has pleaded, poor man! that his frequent gouty
+paroxysms (every fit more threatening than the former) give him no
+extraordinary prospects, either of worldly happiness, or of long days:
+and he hopes, that you, who have been supposed to have contributed
+to the lengthening of your grandfather's life, will not, by your
+disobedience, shorten your father's.'
+
+This was a most affecting plea, my dear. I wept in silence upon it. I
+could not speak to it. And my mother proceeded: 'What therefore can be
+his motives, Clary Harlowe, in the earnest desire he has to see this
+treaty perfected, but the welfare and aggrandizement of his family;
+which already having fortunes to become the highest condition, cannot
+but aspire to greater distinctions? However slight such views as these
+may appear to you, Clary, you know, that they are not slight ones to any
+other of the family: and your father will be his own judge of what
+is and what is not likely to promote the good of his children. Your
+abstractedness, child, (affectation of abstractedness, some call it,)
+savours, let me tell you, of greater particularity, than we aim to
+carry. Modesty and humility, therefore, will oblige you rather to
+mistrust yourself of peculiarity, than censure views which all the world
+pursues, as opportunity offers.'
+
+I was still silent; and she proceeded--'It is owing to the good opinion,
+Clary, which your father has of you, and of your prudence, duty, and
+gratitude, that he engaged for your compliance, in your absence (before
+you returned from Miss Howe); and that he built and finished contracts
+upon it, which cannot be made void, or cancelled.'
+
+But why then, thought I, did they receive me, on my return from Miss
+Howe, with so much intimidating solemnity?--To be sure, my dear, this
+argument, as well as the rest, was obtruded upon my mother.
+
+She went on, 'Your father has declared, that your unexpected opposition,
+[unexpected she was pleased to call it,] and Mr. Lovelace's continued
+menaces and insults, more and more convince him, that a short day is
+necessary in order to put an end to all that man's hopes, and to his own
+apprehensions resulting from the disobedience of a child so favoured. He
+has therefore actually ordered patterns of the richest silks to be sent
+for from London--'
+
+I started--I was out of breath--I gasped, at this frightful
+precipitance--I was going to open with warmth against it. I knew whose
+the happy expedient must be: female minds, I once heard my brother say,
+that could but be brought to balance on the change of their state,
+might easily be determined by the glare and splendour of the nuptial
+preparations, and the pride of becoming the mistress of a family.--But
+she was pleased to hurry on, that I might not have time to express
+my disgusts at such a communication--to this effect: 'Your father
+therefore, my Clary, cannot, either for your sake, or his own, labour
+under a suspense so affecting to his repose. He has even thought fit to
+acquaint me, on my pleading for you, that it becomes me, as I value my
+own peace, [how harsh to such a wife!] and as I wish, that he does not
+suspect that I secretly favour the address of a vile rake, (a character
+which all the sex, he is pleased to say, virtuous and vicious, are but
+too fond of!) to exert my authority over you: and that this I may the
+less scrupulously do, as you have owned [the old string!] that your
+heart is free.'
+
+Unworthy reflection in my mother's case, surely, this of our sex's
+valuing a libertine; since she made choice of my father in preference
+to several suitors of equal fortune, because they were of inferior
+reputation for morals!
+
+'Your father, added she, at his going out, told me what he expected
+from me, in case I found out that I had not the requisite influence upon
+you--It was this--That I should directly separate myself from you, and
+leave you singly to take the consequence of your double disobedience--I
+therefore entreat you, my dear Clarissa, concluded she, and that in the
+most earnest and condescending manner, to signify to your father, on his
+return, your ready obedience; and this as well for my sake as your own.'
+
+Affected by my mother's goodness to me, and by that part of her argument
+which related to her own peace, and to the suspicions they had of her
+secretly inclining to prefer the man so hated by them, to the man so
+much my aversion, I could not but wish it were possible for me to obey,
+I therefore paused, hesitated, considered, and was silent for some time.
+I could see, that my mother hoped that the result of this hesitation
+would be favourable to her arguments. But then recollecting, that all
+was owing to the instigations of a brother and sister, wholly actuated
+by selfish and envious views; that I had not deserved the treatment I
+had of late met with; that my disgrace was already become the public
+talk; that the man was Mr. Solmes; and that my aversion to him was too
+generally known, to make my compliance either creditable to myself or
+to them: that it would give my brother and sister a triumph over me,
+and over Mr. Lovelace, which they would not fail to glory in; and which,
+although it concerned me but little to regard on his account, yet might
+be attended with fatal mischiefs--And then Mr. Solmes's
+disagreeable person; his still more disagreeable manners; his low
+understanding--Understanding! the glory of a man, so little to be
+dispensed with in the head and director of a family, in order to
+preserve to him that respect which a good wife (and that for the
+justification of her own choice) should pay him herself, and wish every
+body to pay him.--And as Mr. Solmes's inferiority in this respectable
+faculty of the human mind [I must be allowed to say this to you, and no
+great self assumption neither] would proclaim to all future, as well as
+to all present observers, what must have been my mean inducement. All
+these reflections crowding upon my remembrance; I would, Madam, said
+I, folding my hands, with an earnestness in which my whole heart was
+engaged, bear the cruelest tortures, bear loss of limb, and even of
+life, to give you peace. But this man, every moment I would, at you
+command, think of him with favour, is the more my aversion. You cannot,
+indeed you cannot, think, how my whole soul resists him!--And to talk
+of contracts concluded upon; of patterns; of a short day!--Save me,
+save me, O my dearest Mamma, save your child, from this heavy, from this
+insupportable evil--!
+
+Never was there a countenance that expressed so significantly, as my
+mother's did, an anguish, which she struggled to hide, under an anger
+she was compelled to assume--till the latter overcoming the former, she
+turned from me with an uplifted eye, and stamping--Strange perverseness!
+were the only words I heard of a sentence that she angrily pronounced;
+and was going. I then, half-frantically I believe, laid hold of her
+gown--Have patience with me, dearest Madam! said I--Do not you renounce
+me totally!--If you must separate yourself from your child, let it
+not be with absolute reprobation on your own part!--My uncles may be
+hard-hearted--my father may be immovable--I may suffer from my brother's
+ambition, and from my sister's envy!--But let me not lose my Mamma's
+love; at least, her pity.
+
+She turned to me with benigner rays--You have my love! You have my pity!
+But, O my dearest girl--I have not yours.
+
+Indeed, indeed, Madam, you have: and all my reverence, all my gratitude,
+you have!--But in this one point--Cannot I be this once obliged?--Will
+no expedient be accepted? Have I not made a very fair proposal as to Mr.
+Lovelace?
+
+I wish, for both our sakes, my dear unpersuadable girl, that the
+decision of this point lay with me. But why, when you know it does not,
+why should you thus perplex and urge me?--To renounce Mr. Lovelace is
+now but half what is aimed at. Nor will any body else believe you in
+earnest in the offer, if I would. While you remain single, Mr. Lovelace
+will have hopes--and you, in the opinion of others, inclinations.
+
+Permit me, dearest Madam, to say, that your goodness to me, your
+patience, your peace, weigh more with me, than all the rest put
+together: for although I am to be treated by my brother, and, through
+his instigations, by my father, as a slave in this point, and not as a
+daughter, yet my mind is not that of a slave. You have not brought me up
+to be mean.
+
+So, Clary! you are already at defiance with your father! I have had too
+much cause before to apprehend as much--What will this come to?--I, and
+then my dear mamma sighed--I, am forced to put up with many humours--
+
+That you are, my ever-honoured Mamma, is my grief. And can it be
+thought, that this very consideration, and the apprehension of what may
+result from a much worse-tempered man, (a man who has not half the sense
+of my father,) has not made an impression upon me, to the disadvantage
+of the married life? Yet 'tis something of an alleviation, if one must
+bear undue controul, to bear it from a man of sense. My father, I
+have heard you say, Madam, was for years a very good-humoured
+gentleman--unobjectionable in person and manners--but the man proposed
+to me--
+
+Forbear reflecting upon your father: [Did I, my dear, in what I have
+repeated, and I think they are the very words, reflect upon my father?]
+it is not possible, I must say again, and again, were all men equally
+indifferent to you, that you should be thus sturdy in your will. I am
+tired out with your obstinacy--The most unpersuadable girl--You forget,
+that I must separate myself from you, if you will not comply. You do not
+remember that you father will take you up, where I leave you. Once
+more, however, I will put it to you,--Are you determined to brave your
+father's displeasure?--Are you determined to defy your uncles?--Do you
+choose to break with us all, rather than encourage Mr. Solmes?--Rather
+than give me hope?
+
+Dreadful alternative--But is not my sincerity, is not the integrity of
+my heart, concerned in the answer? May not my everlasting happiness
+be the sacrifice? Will not the least shadow of the hope you just now
+demanded from me, be driven into absolute and sudden certainty? Is it
+not sought to ensnare, to entangle me in my own desire of obeying, if
+I could give answers that might be construed into hope?--Forgive
+me, Madam: bear with your child's boldness in such a cause as
+this!--Settlements drawn!--Patterns sent for!--An early day!--Dear, dear
+Madam, how can I give hope, and not intend to be this man's?
+
+Ah, girl, never say your heart is free! You deceive yourself if you
+think it is.
+
+Thus to be driven [and I wrung my hands through impatience] by the
+instigations of a designing, an ambitious brother, and by a sister,
+that--
+
+How often, Clary, must I forbid your unsisterly reflections?--Does not
+your father, do not your uncles, does not every body, patronize
+Mr. Solmes? And let me tell you, ungrateful girl, and unmovable as
+ungrateful, let me repeatedly tell you, that it is evident to me, that
+nothing but a love unworthy of your prudence can make you a creature
+late so dutiful, now so sturdy. You may guess what your father's first
+question on his return will be. He must know, that I can do nothing with
+you. I have done my part. Seek me, if your mind change before he comes
+back: you have yet a little more time, as he stays supper. I will no
+more seek you, nor to you.--And away she flung.
+
+What could I do but weep?
+
+I am extremely affected on my mother's account--more, I must needs say,
+than on my own. And indeed, all things considered, and especially, that
+the measure she is engaged in, is (as I dare say it is) against her own
+judgment, she deserves more compassion than myself.--Excellent woman!
+What pity, that meekness and condescension should not be attended with
+the due rewards of those charming graces!--Yet had she not let violent
+spirits (as I have elsewhere observed with no small regret) find their
+power over hers, it could not have been thus.
+
+But here, run away with my pen, I suffer my mother to be angry with me
+on her own account. She hinted to me, indeed, that I must seek her, if
+my mind changed; which is a condition that amounts to a prohibition of
+attending her: but, as she left me in displeasure, will it not have a
+very obstinate appearance, and look like a kind of renunciation of her
+mediation in my favour, if I go not down before my father returns, to
+supplicate her pity, and her kind report to him?
+
+I will attend her. I had rather all the world should be angry with me
+than my mamma!
+
+Mean time, to clear my hands from papers of such a nature, Hannah shall
+deposit this. If two or three letters reach you together, they will but
+express from one period to another, the anxieties and difficulties which
+the mind of your unhappy but ever affectionate friend labours under.
+
+CL. H.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SAT. NIGHT.
+
+
+I have been down. I am to be unlucky in all I do, I think, be my
+intentions ever so good. I have made matters worse instead of better: as
+I shall now tell you.
+
+I found my mother and sister together in my sister's parlour. My mother,
+I fear, by the glow of her fine face, (and as the browner, sullener glow
+in her sister's confirmed,) had been expressing herself with warmth,
+against her unhappier child: perhaps giving such an account of what had
+passed, as should clear herself, and convince Bella, and, through her,
+my brother and uncles, of the sincere pains she had taken with me.
+
+I entered like a dejected criminal; and besought the favour of a private
+audience. My mother's return, both looks and words, gave but too much
+reason for my above surmise.
+
+You have, said she [looking at me with a sternness that never sits well
+on her sweet features] rather a requesting than a conceding countenance,
+Clarissa Harlowe: if I am mistaken, tell me so; and I will withdraw with
+you wherever you will.--Yet whether so, or not, you may say what you
+have to say before your sister.
+
+My mother, I thought, might have withdrawn with me, as she knows that I
+have not a friend in my sister.
+
+I come down, Madam, said I, to beg of you to forgive me for any thing
+you may have taken amiss in what passed above respecting your honoured
+self; and that you will be pleased to use your endeavours to soften my
+papa's displeasure against me, on his return.
+
+Such aggravating looks; such lifting up of hands and eyes; such a
+furrowed forehead, in my sister!
+
+My mother was angry enough without all that; and asked me to what
+purpose I came down, if I were still so intractable.
+
+She had hardly spoken the words, when Shorey came in to tell her, that
+Mr. Solmes was in the hall, and desired admittance.
+
+Ugly creature! What, at the close of day, quite dark, brought him
+hither?--But, on second thoughts, I believe it was contrived, that he
+should be here at supper, to know the result of the conference between
+my mother and me, and that my father, on his return, might find us
+together.
+
+I was hurrying away, but my mother commanded me (since I had come down
+only, as she said, to mock her) not to stir; and at the same time see
+if I could behave so to Mr. Solmes, as might encourage her to make the
+favourable report to my father which I had besought her to make.
+
+My sister triumphed. I was vexed to be so caught, and to have such an
+angry and cutting rebuke given me, with an aspect much more like the
+taunting sister than the indulgent mother, if I may presume to say so:
+for she herself seemed to enjoy the surprise upon me.
+
+The man stalked in. His usual walk is by pauses, as if (from the same
+vacuity of thought which made Dryden's clown whistle) he was telling
+his steps: and first paid his clumsy respects to my mother; then to my
+sister; next to me, as if I was already his wife, and therefore to be
+last in his notice; and sitting down by me, told us in general what
+weather it was. Very cold he made it; but I was warm enough. Then
+addressing himself to me: And how do you find it, Miss? was his
+question; and would have taken my hand.
+
+I withdrew it, I believe with disdain enough. My mother frowned. My
+sister bit her lip.
+
+I could not contain myself: I was never so bold in my life; for I went
+on with my plea, as if Mr. Solmes had not been there.
+
+My mother coloured, and looked at him, at my sister, and at me. My
+sister's eyes were opener and bigger than ever I saw them before.
+
+The man understood me. He hemmed, and removed from one chair to another.
+
+I went on, supplicating for my mother's favourable report: Nothing but
+invincible dislike, said I--
+
+What would the girl be at, interrupted my mother? Why, Clary! Is this a
+subject!--Is this!--Is this!--Is this a time--And again she looked upon
+Mr. Solmes.
+
+I am sorry, on reflection, that I put my mamma into so much
+confusion--To be sure it was very saucy in me.
+
+I beg pardon, Madam, said I. But my papa will soon return. And since
+I am not permitted to withdraw, it is not necessary, I humbly presume,
+that Mr. Solmes's presence should deprive me of this opportunity to
+implore your favourable report; and at the same time, if he still visit
+on my account [looking at him] to convince him, that it cannot possibly
+be to any purpose--
+
+Is the girl mad? said my mother, interrupting me.
+
+My sister, with the affectation of a whisper to my mother--This is--This
+is spite, Madam, [very spitefully she spoke the word,] because you
+commanded her to stay.
+
+I only looked at her, and turning to my mother, Permit me, Madam, said
+I, to repeat my request. I have no brother, no sister!--If I ever lose
+my mamma's favour, I am lost for ever!
+
+Mr. Solmes removed to his first seat, and fell to gnawing the head of
+his hazel; a carved head, almost as ugly as his own--I did not think the
+man was so sensible.
+
+My sister rose, with a face all over scarlet; and stepping to the table,
+where lay a fan, she took it up, and, although Mr. Solmes had observed
+that the weather was cold, fanned herself very violently.
+
+My mother came to me, and angrily taking my hand, led me out of that
+parlour into my own; which, you know, is next to it--Is not this
+behaviour very bold, very provoking, think you, Clary?
+
+I beg your pardon, Madam, if it has that appearance to you. But indeed,
+my dear Mamma, there seem to be snares laying in wait for me. Too well
+I know my brother's drift. With a good word he shall have my consent for
+all he wishes to worm me out of--neither he, nor my sister, shall need
+to take half this pains--
+
+My mother was about to leave me in high displeasure.
+
+I besought her to stay: One favour, but one favour, dearest Madam, said
+I, give me leave to beg of you--
+
+What would the girl?
+
+I see how every thing is working about.--I never, never can think of Mr.
+Solmes. My papa will be in tumults when he is told that I cannot. They
+will judge of the tenderness of your heart to a poor child who seems
+devoted by every one else, from the willingness you have already shewn
+to hearken to my prayers. There will be endeavours used to confine me,
+and keep me out of your presence, and out of the presence of every one
+who used to love me [this, my dear Miss Howe, is threatened]. If this
+be effected; if it be put out of my power to plead my own cause, and to
+appeal to you, and to my uncle Harlowe, of whom only I have hope; then
+will every ear be opened against me, and every tale encouraged--It
+is, therefore, my humble request, that, added to the disgraceful
+prohibitions I now suffer under, you will not, if you can help it, give
+way to my being denied your ear.
+
+Your listening Hannah has given you this intelligence, as she does many
+others.
+
+My Hannah, Madam, listens not--My Hannah--
+
+No more in Hannah's behalf--Hannah is known to make mischief--Hannah
+is known--But no more of that bold intermeddler--'Tis true your father
+threatened to confine you to your chamber, if you complied not, in order
+the more assuredly to deprive you of the opportunity of corresponding
+with those who harden your heart against his will. He bid me tell you
+so, when he went out, if I found you refractory. But I was loth to
+deliver so harsh a declaration; being still in hope that you would come
+down to us in a compliant temper. Hannah has overheard this, I suppose;
+and has told you of it; as also, that he declared he would break your
+heart, rather than you should break his. And I now assure you, that you
+will be confined, and prohibited making teasing appeals to any of us:
+and we shall see who is to submit, you to us, or every body to you.
+
+Again I offered to clear Hannah, and to lay the latter part of the
+intelligence to my sister's echo, Betty Barnes, who had boasted of it to
+another servant: but I was again bid to be silent on that head. I
+should soon find, my mother was pleased to say, that others could be as
+determined as I was obstinate: and once for all would add, that since
+she saw that I built upon her indulgence, and was indifferent about
+involving her in contentions with my father, she would now assure me,
+that she was as much determined against Mr. Lovelace, and for Mr. Solmes
+and the family schemes, as any body; and would not refuse her consent to
+any measures that should be thought necessary to reduce a stubborn child
+to her duty.
+
+I was ready to sink. She was so good as to lend me her arm to support
+me.
+
+And this, said I, is all I have to hope for from my Mamma?
+
+It is. But, Clary, this one further opportunity I give you--Go in again
+to Mr. Solmes, and behave discreetly to him; and let your father find
+you together, upon civil terms at least.
+
+My feet moved [of themselves, I think] farther from the parlour where he
+was, and towards the stairs; and there I stopped and paused.
+
+If, proceeded she, you are determined to stand in defiance of us
+all--then indeed you may go up to your chamber (as you are ready to
+do)--And God help you!
+
+God help me, indeed! for I cannot give hope of what I cannot intend--But
+let me have your prayers, my dear Mamma!--Those shall have mine, who
+have brought me into all this distress.
+
+I was moving to go up--
+
+And will you go up, Clary?
+
+I turned my face to her: my officious tears would needs plead for me: I
+could not just then speak, and stood still.
+
+Good girl, distress me not thus!--Dear, good girl, do not thus distress
+me! holding out her hand; but standing still likewise.
+
+What can I do, Madam?--What can I do?
+
+Go in again, my child--Go in again, my dear child!--repeated she; and
+let your father find you together.
+
+What, Madam, to give him hope?--To give hope to Mr. Solmes?
+
+Obstinate, perverse, undutiful Clarissa! with a rejecting hand, and
+angry aspect; then take your own way, and go up!--But stir not down
+again, I charge you, without leave, or till your father's pleasure be
+known concerning you.
+
+She flung away from me with high indignation: and I went up with a very
+heavy heart; and feet as slow as my heart was heavy.
+
+
+***
+
+
+My father is come home, and my brother with him. Late as it is, they are
+all shut up together. Not a door opens; not a soul stirs. Hannah, as she
+moves up and down, is shunned as a person infected.
+
+
+***
+
+
+The angry assembly is broken up. My two uncles and my aunt Hervey are
+sent for, it seems, to be here in the morning to breakfast. I shall
+then, I suppose, know my doom. 'Tis past eleven, and I am ordered not to
+go to bed.
+
+
+TWELVE O'CLOCK.
+
+
+This moment the keys of every thing are taken from me. It was proposed
+to send for me down: but my father said, he could not bear to look upon
+me.--Strange alteration in a few weeks!--Shorey was the messenger. The
+tears stood in her eyes when she delivered her message.
+
+You, my dear, are happy--May you always be so--and then I can never be
+wholly miserable. Adieu, my beloved friend!
+
+CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 5.
+
+
+Hannah has just brought me from the private place in the garden-wall, a
+letter from Mr. Lovelace, deposited last night, signed also by Lord M.
+
+He tells me in it, 'That Mr. Solmes makes it his boast, that he is to
+be married in a few days to one of the shyest women in England: that my
+brother explains his meaning: This shy creature, he says, is me; and
+he assures every one, that his younger sister is very soon to be Mr.
+Solmes's wife. He tells me of the patterns bespoken which my mother
+mentioned to me.'
+
+Not one thing escapes him that is done or said in this house.
+
+'My sister, he says, reports the same things; and that with such
+particular aggravations of insult upon him, that he cannot but be
+extremely piqued, as well at the manner, as from the occasion; and
+expresses himself with great violence upon it.
+
+'He knows not, he says, what my relations' inducements can be to prefer
+such a man as Solmes to him. If advantageous settlements be the motive,
+Solmes shall not offer what he will refuse to comply with.
+
+'As to his estate and family; the first cannot be excepted against: and
+for the second, he will not disgrace himself by a comparison so odious.
+He appeals to Lord M. for the regularity of his life and manners ever
+since he has made his addresses to me, or had hope of my favour.'
+
+I suppose he would have his Lordship's signing to this letter to be
+taken as a voucher for him.
+
+'He desires my leave (in company with my Lord), in a pacific manner,
+to attend my father and uncles, in order to make proposals that must be
+accepted, if they will see him, and hear what they are: and tells me,
+that he will submit to any measures that I shall prescribe, in order to
+bring about a reconciliation.'
+
+He presumes to be very earnest with me, 'to give him a private meeting
+some night, in my father's garden, attended by whom I please.'
+
+Really, my dear, were you to see his letter, you would think I had given
+him great encouragement, and that I am in direct treaty with him; or
+that he is sure that my friends will drive me into a foreign protection;
+for he has the boldness to offer, in my Lord's name, an asylum to me,
+should I be tyrannically treated in Solmes's behalf.
+
+I suppose it is the way of this sex to endeavour to entangle the
+thoughtless of ours by bold supposals and offers, in hopes that we shall
+be too complaisant or bashful to quarrel with them; and, if not checked,
+to reckon upon our silence, as assents voluntarily given, or concessions
+made in their favour.
+
+There are other particulars in this letter which I ought to mention to
+you: but I will take an opportunity to send you the letter itself, or a
+copy of it.
+
+For my own part, I am very uneasy to think how I have been drawn on one
+hand, and driven on the other, into a clandestine, in short, into a mere
+loverlike correspondence, which my heart condemns.
+
+It is easy to see, if I do not break it off, that Mr. Lovelace's
+advantages, by reason of my unhappy situation, will every day increase,
+and I shall be more and more entangled. Yet if I do put an end to
+it, without making it a condition of being freed from Mr. Solmes's
+address--May I, my dear, is it best to continue it a little longer, in
+order to extricate myself out of the other difficulty, by giving up all
+thoughts of Mr. Lovelace?--Whose advice can I now ask but yours.
+
+All my relations are met. They are at breakfast together. Mr. Solmes is
+expected. I am excessively uneasy. I must lay down my pen.
+
+
+***
+
+
+They are all going to church together. Grievously disordered they appear
+to be, as Hannah tells me. She believes something is resolved upon.
+
+
+SUNDAY NOON.
+
+
+What a cruel thing is suspense!--I will ask leave to go to church this
+afternoon. I expect to be denied. But, if I do not ask, they may allege,
+that my not going is owing to myself.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I desired to speak with Shorey. Shorey came. I directed her to carry to
+my mother my request for permission to go to church this afternoon. What
+think you was the return? Tell her, that she must direct herself to
+her brother for any favour she has to ask.--So, my dear, I am to be
+delivered up to my brother!
+
+I was resolved, however, to ask of him this favour. Accordingly, when
+they sent me up my solitary dinner, I gave the messenger a billet,
+in which I made it my humble request through him to my father, to be
+permitted to go to church this afternoon.
+
+This was the contemptuous answer: 'Tell her, that her request will be
+taken into consideration to-morrow.'
+
+Patience will be the fittest return I can make to such an insult. But
+this method will not do with me; indeed it will not! And yet it is but
+the beginning, I suppose, of what I am to expect from my brother, now I
+am delivered up to him.
+
+
+
+On recollection, I thought it best to renew my request. I did. The
+following is a copy of what I wrote, and what follows that, of the
+answer sent me.
+
+
+SIR,
+
+I know not what to make of the answer brought to my request of being
+permitted to go to church this afternoon. If you designed to shew your
+pleasantry by it, I hope that will continue; and then my request will be
+granted.
+
+You know, that I never absented myself, when well, and at home, till the
+two last Sundays; when I was advised not to go. My present situation is
+such, that I never more wanted the benefit of the public prayers.
+
+I will solemnly engage only to go thither, and back again.
+
+I hope it cannot be thought that I would do otherwise.
+
+My dejection of spirits will give a too just excuse on the score
+of indisposition for avoiding visits. Nor will I, but by distant
+civilities, return the compliments of any of my acquaintances. My
+disgraces, if they are to have an end, need not be proclaimed to the
+whole world. I ask this favour, therefore, for my reputation's sake,
+that I may be able to hold up my head in the neighbourhood, if I live to
+see an end of the unmerited severities which seem to be designed for
+
+Your unhappy sister, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE
+
+For a girl to lay so much stress upon going to church, and yet resolve
+to defy her parents, in an article of the greatest consequence to them,
+and to the whole family, is an absurdity. You are recommended, Miss, to
+the practice of your private devotions. May they be efficacious upon the
+mind of one of the most pervicacious young creatures that ever was heard
+of! The intention is, I tell you plainly, to mortify you into a sense
+of your duty. The neighbours you are so solicitous to appear well with,
+already know, that you defy that. So, Miss, if you have a real value for
+your reputation, shew it as you ought. It is yet in your own power to
+establish or impair it.
+
+JA. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+Thus, my dear Miss Howe, has my brother got me into his snares; and I,
+like a poor silly bird, the more I struggle, am the more entangled.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 6.
+
+
+They are resolved to break my heart. My poor Hannah is
+discharged--disgracefully discharged!--Thus it was.
+
+Within half an hour after I had sent the poor girl down for my
+breakfast, that bold creature Betty Barnes, my sister's confidant and
+servant, (if a favourite maid and confidant can be deemed a servant,)
+came up.
+
+What, Miss, will you please to have for breakfast?
+
+I was surprised. What will I have for breakfast,
+Betty!--How!--What!--How comes it!--Then I named Hannah. I could not
+tell what to say.
+
+Don't be surprised, Miss:--but you'll see Hannah no more in this house.
+
+God forbid!--Is any harm come to Hannah?--What! What is the matter with
+Hannah?
+
+Why, Miss, the short and the long is this: Your papa and mamma think
+Hannah has staid long enough in the house to do mischief; and so she
+is ordered to troop [that was the confident creature's word]; and I am
+directed to wait upon you in her stead.
+
+I burst into tears. I have no service for you, Betty Barnes; none at
+all. But where is Hannah? Cannot I speak with the poor girl? I owe her
+half a year's wages. May I not see the honest creature, and pay her her
+wages? I may never see her again perhaps; for they are resolved to break
+my heart.
+
+And they think you are resolved to break theirs: so tit for tat, Miss.
+
+Impertinent I called her; and asked her, if it were upon such confident
+terms that her service was to begin.
+
+I was so very earnest to see the poor maid, that (to oblige me, as she
+said) she went down with my request.
+
+The worthy creature was as earnest to see me; and the favour was granted
+in presence of Shorey and Betty.
+
+I thanked her, when she came up, for her past service to me.
+
+Her heart was ready to break. And she began to vindicate her fidelity
+and love; and disclaimed any mischief she had ever made.
+
+I told her, that those who occasioned her being turned out of my
+service, made no question of her integrity: that her dismission was
+intended for an indignity to me: that I was very sorry to be obliged to
+part with her, and hoped she would meet with as good a service.
+
+Never, never, wringing her hands, should she meet with a mistress
+she loved so well. And the poor creature ran on in my praises, and in
+professions of love to me.
+
+We are all apt, you know, my dear, to praise our benefactors, because
+they are our benefactors; as if every body did right or wrong, as they
+obliged or disobliged us. But this good creature deserved to be kindly
+treated; so I could have no merit in favouring one whom it would have
+been ungrateful not to distinguish.
+
+I gave her a little linen, some laces, and other odd things; and instead
+of four pounds which were due to her, ten guineas: and said, if ever I
+were again allowed to be my own mistress, I would think of her in the
+first place.
+
+Betty enviously whispered Shorey upon it.
+
+Hannah told me, before their faces, having no other opportunity, that
+she had been examined about letters to me, and from me: and that she
+had given her pockets to Miss Harlowe, who looked into them, and put her
+fingers in her stays, to satisfy herself that she had not any.
+
+She gave me an account of the number of my pheasants and bantams; and I
+said, they should be my own care twice or thrice a day.
+
+We wept over each other at parting. The girl prayed for all the family.
+
+To have so good a servant so disgracefully dismissed, is very cruel: and
+I could not help saying that these methods might break my heart, but not
+any other way answer the end of the authors of my disgraces.
+
+Betty, with a very saucy fleer, said to Shorey, There would be a trial
+of skill about that she fancied. But I took no notice of it. If this
+wench thinks that I have robbed her young mistress of a lover, as you
+say she has given out, she may believe that it is some degree of merit
+in herself to be impertinent to me.
+
+Thus have I been forced to part with my faithful Hannah. If you can
+command the good creature to a place worthy of her, pray do for my sake.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY, NEAR 12 O'CLOCK.
+
+
+The enclosed letter was just now delivered to me. My brother has carried
+all his points.
+
+I send you also the copy of my answer. No more at this time can I
+write--!
+
+
+
+MONDAY, MAR. 6.
+
+MISS CLARY,
+
+
+By command of your father and mother I write expressly to forbid you to
+come into their presence, or into the garden when they are there: nor
+when they are not there, but with Betty Banes to attend you; except by
+particular license or command.
+
+On their blessings, you are forbidden likewise to correspond with the
+vile Lovelace; as it is well known you did by means of your sly Hannah.
+Whence her sudden discharge. As was fit.
+
+Neither are you to correspond with Miss Howe; who has given herself high
+airs of late; and might possibly help on your correspondence with that
+detested libertine. Nor, in short, with any body without leave.
+
+You are not to enter into the presence of either of your uncles, without
+their leave first obtained. It is a mercy to you, after such a behaviour
+to your mother, that your father refuses to see you.
+
+You are not to be seen in any apartment of the house you so lately
+governed as you pleased, unless you are commanded down.
+
+In short, you are strictly to confine yourself to your chamber, except
+now and then, in Betty Barnes's sight (as aforesaid) you take a morning
+or evening turn in the garden: and then you are to go directly, and
+without stopping at any apartment in the way, up or down the back
+stairs, that the sight of so perverse a young creature may not add to
+the pain you have given every body.
+
+The hourly threatenings of your fine fellow, as well as your own
+unheard-of obstinacy, will account to you for all this. What a hand has
+the best and most indulgent of mothers had with you, who so long pleaded
+for you, and undertook for you; even when others, from the manner of
+your setting out, despaired of moving you!--What must your perverseness
+have been, that such a mother can give you up! She thinks it right so to
+do: nor will take you to favour, unless you make the first steps, by a
+compliance with your duty.
+
+As for myself, whom perhaps you think hardly of [in very good company,
+if you do, that is my sole consolation]; I have advised, that you may be
+permitted to pursue your own inclinations, (some people need no greater
+punishment than such a permission,) and not to have the house encumbered
+by one who must give them the more pain for the necessity she has laid
+them under of avoiding the sight of her, although in it.
+
+If any thing I have written appear severe or harsh, it is still in your
+power (but perhaps will not always be so) to remedy it; and that by a
+single word.
+
+Betty Barnes has orders to obey you in all points consistent with her
+duty to those whom you owe it, as well as she.
+
+JA. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+TO JAMES HARLOWE, JUNIOR, ESQ.
+
+SIR,
+
+I will only say, That you may congratulate yourself on having so far
+succeeded in all your views, that you may report what you please of me,
+and I can no more defend myself, than if I were dead. Yet one favour,
+nevertheless, I will beg of you. It is this--That you will not occasion
+more severities, more disgraces, that are necessary for carrying into
+execution your further designs, whatever they be, against
+
+Your unhappy sister, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 7.
+
+
+By my last deposit, you will see how I am driven, and what a poor
+prisoner I am.--No regard had to my reputation. The whole matter is now
+before you. Can such measures be supposed to soften?--But surely they
+can only mean to try and frighten me into my brother's views!--All my
+hope is, to be able to weather this point till my cousin Morden comes
+from Florence; and he is soon expected: yet, if they are determined upon
+a short day, I doubt he will not be here in time enough to save me.
+
+It is plain by my brother's letter, that my mother has not spared me, in
+the report she was pleased to make of the conference between herself and
+me: yet she was pleased to hint to me, that my brother had views which
+she would have had me try to disappoint. But indeed she had engaged to
+give a faithful account of what was to pass between herself and me: and
+it was, doubtless, much more eligible to give up a daughter, than to
+disoblige a husband, and every other person of the family.
+
+They think they have done every thing by turning away my poor Hannah:
+but as long as the liberty of the garden, and my poultry-visits, are
+allowed me, they will be mistaken.
+
+I asked Mrs. Betty, if she had any orders to watch or attend me; or
+whether I was to ask her leave whenever I should be disposed to walk in
+the garden, or to go feed my bantams?--Lord bless her! what could I mean
+by such a question! Yet she owned, that she had heard, that I was not to
+go into the garden, when my father, mother, or uncles were there.
+
+However, as it behoved me to be assured on this head, I went down
+directly, and staid an hour, without question or impediment; and yet a
+good part of the time, I walked under and in sight, as I may say, of my
+brother's study window, where both he and my sister happened to be.
+And I am sure they saw me, by the loud mirth they affected, by way of
+insult, as I suppose.
+
+So this part of my restraint was doubtless a stretch of the authority
+given him. The enforcing of that may perhaps come next. But I hope not.
+
+
+TUESDAY NIGHT.
+
+
+Since I wrote the above, I ventured to send a letter by Shorey to my
+mother. I desired her to give it into her own hand, when nobody was by.
+
+I shall enclose a copy of it. You will see that I would have it thought,
+that now Hannah is gone, I have no way to correspond out of the house. I
+am far from thinking all I do right. I am afraid this is a little piece
+of art, that is not so. But this is an afterthought. The letter went
+first.
+
+
+HONOURED MADAM,
+
+Having acknowledged to you, that I had received letters from Mr.
+Lovelace full of resentment, and that I answered them purely to prevent
+further mischief, and having shewn you copies of my answers, which you
+did not disapprove of, although you thought fit, after you had read
+them, to forbid me any further correspondence with him, I think it my
+duty to acquaint you, that another letter from him has since come to my
+hand, in which he is very earnest with me to permit him to wait on my
+papa, or you, or my two uncles, in a pacific way, accompanied by Lord
+M.: on which I beg your commands.
+
+I own to you, Madam, that had not the prohibition been renewed, and had
+not Hannah been so suddenly dismissed my service, I should have made
+the less scruple to have written an answer, and to have commanded her
+to convey it to him, with all speed, in order to dissuade him from these
+visits, lest any thing should happen on the occasion that my heart aches
+but to think of.
+
+And here I cannot but express my grief, that I should have all the
+punishment and all the blame, who, as I have reason to think, have
+prevented great mischief, and have not been the occasion of any. For,
+Madam, could I be supposed to govern the passions of either of the
+gentlemen?--Over the one indeed I have had some little influence,
+without giving him hitherto any reason to think he has fastened an
+obligation upon me for it.--Over the other, Who, Madam, has any?--I am
+grieved at heart, to be obliged to lay so great a blame at my brother's
+door, although my reputation and my liberty are both to be sacrificed
+to his resentment and ambition. May not, however, so deep a sufferer be
+permitted to speak out?
+
+This communication being as voluntarily made, as dutifully intended,
+I humbly presume to hope, that I shall not be required to produce the
+letter itself. I cannot either in honour or prudence do that, because of
+the vehemence of his style; for having heard [not, I assure you, by my
+means, or through Hannah's] of some part of the harsh treatment I have
+met with; he thinks himself entitled to place it to his own account, by
+reason of speeches thrown out by some of my relations, equally vehement.
+
+If I do not answer him, he will be made desperate, and think himself
+justified (thought I shall not think him so) in resenting the treatment
+he complains of: if I do, and if, in compliment to me, he forbears to
+resent what he thinks himself entitled to resent; be pleased, Madam, to
+consider the obligation he will suppose he lays me under.
+
+If I were as strongly prepossessed in his favour as is supposed, I
+should not have wished this to be considered by you. And permit me, as
+a still further proof that I am not prepossessed, to beg of you to
+consider, Whether, upon the whole, the proposal I made, of declaring for
+the single life (which I will religiously adhere to) is not the best way
+to get rid of his pretensions with honour. To renounce him, and not be
+allowed to aver, that I will never be the other man's, will make him
+conclude (driven as I am driven) that I am determined in that other
+man's favour.
+
+If this has not its due weight, my brother's strange schemes must be
+tried, and I will resign myself to my destiny with all the acquiescence
+that shall be granted to my prayers. And so leaving the whole to your
+own wisdom, and whether you choose to consult my papa and uncles upon
+this humble application, or not; or whether I shall be allowed to write
+an answer to Mr. Lovelace, or not [and if allowed to do so, I beg your
+direction by whom to send it]; I remain,
+
+Honoured Madam, Your unhappy, but ever dutiful daughter, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+WEDNESDAY MORNING.
+
+
+I have just received an answer to the enclosed letter. My mother, you
+will observe, has ordered me to burn it: but, as you will have it in
+your safekeeping, and nobody else will see it, her end will be equally
+answered, as if it were burnt. It has neither date nor superscription.
+
+
+CLARISSA,
+
+Say not all the blame and all the punishment is yours. I am as much
+blamed, and as much punished, as you are; yet am more innocent. When
+your obstinacy is equal to any other person's passion, blame not your
+brother. We judged right, that Hannah carried on your correspondencies.
+Now she is gone, and you cannot write [we think you cannot] to Miss
+Howe, nor she to you, without our knowledge, one cause of uneasiness and
+jealousy is over.
+
+I had no dislike of Hannah. I did not tell her so; because somebody was
+within hearing when she desired to pay her duty to me at going. I gave
+her a caution, in a raised voice, To take care, wherever she went to
+live next, if there were any young ladies, how she made parties, and
+assisted in clandestine correspondencies. But I slid two guineas into
+her hand: nor was I angry to hear that you were still more bountiful to
+her. So much for Hannah.
+
+I don't know what to write, about your answering that man of violence.
+What can you think of it, that such a family as ours, should have such
+a rod held over it?--For my part, I have not owned that I know you have
+corresponded. By your last boldness to me [an astonishing one it was,
+to pursue before Mr. Solmes the subject I was forced to break from
+above-stairs!] you may, as far as I know, plead, that you had my
+countenance for your correspondence with him; and so add to the
+uneasiness between your father and me. You were once my comfort,
+Clarissa; you made all my hardships tolerable:--But now!--However,
+nothing, it is plain, can move you; and I will say no more on that head:
+for you are under your father's discipline now; and he will neither be
+prescribed to, nor entreated.
+
+I should have been glad to see the letter you tell me of, as I saw the
+rest. You say, both honour and prudence forbid you to shew it to me.--O
+Clarissa! what think you of receiving letters that honour and prudence
+forbid you to shew to a mother!--But it is not for me to see it, if you
+would choose to shew it me. I will not be in your secret. I will not
+know that you did correspond. And, as to an answer, take your own
+methods. But let him know it will be the last you will write. And, if
+you do write, I won't see it: so seal it up (if you do) and give it to
+Shorey; and she--Yet do not think I give you license to write.
+
+We will be upon no conditions with him, nor will you be allowed to be
+upon any. Your father and uncles would have no patience were he to come.
+What have you to do to oblige him with your refusal of Mr. Solmes?--Will
+not that refusal be to give him hope? And while he has any, can we be
+easy or free from his insults? Were even your brother in fault, as that
+fault cannot be conquered, is a sister to carry on a correspondence that
+shall endanger her brother? But your father has given his sanction to
+your brother's dislikes, your uncles', and every body's!--No matter to
+whom owing.
+
+As to the rest, you have by your obstinacy put it out of my power to do
+any thing for you. Your father takes it upon himself to be answerable
+for all consequences. You must not therefore apply to me for favour.
+I shall endeavour to be only an observer: Happy, if I could be an
+unconcerned one!--While I had power, you would not let me use it as I
+would have used it. Your aunt has been forced to engage not to interfere
+but by your father's direction. You'll have severe trials. If you have
+any favour to hope for, it must be from the mediation of your uncles.
+And yet, I believe, they are equally determined: for they make it a
+principle, [alas! they never had children!] that that child, who in
+marriage is not governed by her parents, is to be given up as a lost
+creature!
+
+I charge you, let not this letter be found. Burn it. There is too much
+of the mother in it, to a daughter so unaccountably obstinate.
+
+Write not another letter to me. I can do nothing for you. But you can do
+every thing for yourself.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Now, my dear, to proceed with my melancholy narrative.
+
+After this letter, you will believe, that I could have very little
+hopes, that an application directly to my father would stand me in any
+stead: but I thought it became me to write, were it but to acquit myself
+to myself, that I have left nothing unattempted that has the least
+likelihood to restore me to his favour. Accordingly I wrote to the
+following effect:
+
+
+I presume not, I say, to argue with my Papa; I only beg his mercy and
+indulgence in this one point, on which depends my present, and perhaps
+my future, happiness; and beseech him not to reprobate his child for an
+aversion which it is not in her power to conquer. I beg, that I may not
+be sacrificed to projects, and remote contingencies. I complain of the
+disgraces I suffer in this banishment from his presence, and in being
+confined to my chamber. In every thing but this one point, I promise
+implicit duty and resignation to his will. I repeat my offers of a
+single life; and appeal to him, whether I have ever given him cause to
+doubt my word. I beg to be admitted to his, and to my mamma's, presence,
+and that my conduct may be under their own eye: and this with the more
+earnestness, as I have too much reason to believe that snares are laid
+for me; and tauntings and revilings used on purpose to make a handle of
+my words against me, when I am not permitted to speak in my own defence.
+I conclude with hoping, that my brother's instigations may not rob an
+unhappy child of her father.
+
+
+***
+
+
+This is the answer, sent without superscription, and unsealed, although
+by Betty Barnes, who delivered it with an air, as if she knew the
+contents.
+
+
+WEDNESDAY.
+
+I write, perverse girl; but with all the indignation that your
+disobedience deserves. To desire to be forgiven a fault you own, and
+yet resolve to persevere in, is a boldness, no more to be equaled,
+than passed over. It is my authority you defy. Your reflections upon a
+brother, that is an honour to us all, deserve my utmost resentment. I
+see how light all relationship sits upon you. The cause I guess at,
+too. I cannot bear the reflections that naturally arise from this
+consideration. Your behaviour to your too-indulgent and too-fond
+mother----But, I have no patience--Continue banished from my presence,
+undutiful as you are, till you know how to conform to my will.
+Ingrateful creature! Your letter but upbraid me for my past indulgence.
+Write no more to me, till you can distinguish better; and till you are
+convinced of your duty to
+
+A JUSTLY INCENSED FATHER.
+
+
+***
+
+
+This angry letter was accompanied by one from my mother, unsealed, and
+unsuperscribed also. Those who take so much pains to confederate every
+one against me, I make no doubt, obliged her to bear her testimony
+against the poor girl.
+
+My mother's letter being a repetition of some of the severe things that
+passed between herself and me, of which I have already informed you, I
+shall not need to give you the contents--only thus far, that she also
+praises my brother, and blames me for my freedoms with him.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE THURSDAY MORN., MARCH 9.
+
+
+I have another letter from Mr. Lovelace, although I had not answered his
+former.
+
+This man, somehow or other, knows every thing that passes in our family.
+My confinement; Hanna's dismission; and more of the resentments and
+resolutions of my father, uncles, and brother, than I can possibly know,
+and almost as soon as the things happen, which he tells me of. He cannot
+come at these intelligencies fairly.
+
+He is excessively uneasy upon what he hears; and his expressions, both
+of love to me, and resentment to them, are very fervent. He solicits me,
+'To engage my honour to him never to have Mr. Solmes.'
+
+I think I may fairly promise him that I will not.
+
+He begs, 'That I will not think he is endeavouring to make to himself
+a merit at any man's expense, since he hopes to obtain my favour on the
+foot of his own; nor that he seeks to intimidate me into a consideration
+for him. But declares, that the treatment he meets with from my family
+is of such a nature, that he is perpetually reproached for not resenting
+it; and that as well by Lord M. and Lady Sarah, and Lady Betty, as by
+all his other friends: and if he must have no hope from me, he cannot
+answer for what his despair will make him do.'
+
+Indeed, he says, 'his relations, the ladies particularly, advise him to
+have recourse to a legal remedy: But how, he asks, can a man of honour
+go to law for verbal abuses given by people entitled to wear swords?'
+
+You see, my dear, that my mother seems as apprehensive of mischief as
+myself; and has indirectly offered to let Shorey carry my answer to the
+letter he sent me before.
+
+He is full of the favours of the ladies of his family to me: to whom,
+nevertheless, I am personally a stranger; except, that I once saw Miss
+Patty Montague at Mrs. Knolly's.
+
+It is natural, I believe, for a person to be the more desirous of making
+new friends, in proportion as she loses the favour of old ones. Yet had
+I rather appear amiable in the eyes of my own relations, and in your
+eyes, than in those of all the world besides--but these four ladies of
+his family have such excellent characters, that one cannot but wish to
+be thought well of by them. Cannot there be a way to find out, by Mrs.
+Fortescue's means, or by Mr. Hickman, who has some knowledge of Lord M.
+[covertly, however,] what their opinions are of the present situation of
+things in our family; and of the little likelihood there is, that ever
+the alliance once approved of by them, can take effect?
+
+I cannot, for my own part, think so well of myself, as to imagine, that
+they can wish their kinsman to persevere in his views with regard to me,
+through such contempts and discouragements.--Not that it would concern
+me, should they advise him to the contrary. By my Lord's signing Mr.
+Lovelace's former letter; by Mr. Lovelace's assurances of the continued
+favour of all his relations; and by the report of others; I seem still
+to stand high in their favour. But, methinks, I should be glad to have
+this confirmed to me, as from themselves, by the lips of an indifferent
+person; and the rather, because of their fortunes and family; and take
+it amiss (as they have reason) to be included by ours in the contempt
+thrown upon their kinsman.
+
+Curiosity at present is all my motive: nor will there ever, I hope, be a
+stronger, notwithstanding your questionable throbs--even were the merits
+of Mr. Lovelace much greater than they are.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I have answered his letters. If he takes me at my word, I shall need to
+be less solicitous for the opinions of his relations in my favour: and
+yet one would be glad to be well thought of by the worthy.
+
+This is the substance of my letter:
+
+'I express my surprise at his knowing (and so early) all that passes
+here.'
+
+I assure him, 'That were there not such a man in the world as himself, I
+would not have Mr. Solmes.'
+
+I tell him, 'That to return, as I understand he does, defiances for
+defiances, to my relations, is far from being a proof with me, either of
+his politeness, or of the consideration he pretends to have for me.
+
+'That the moment I hear he visits any of my friends without their
+consent, I will make a resolution never to see him more, if I can help
+it.'
+
+I apprize him, 'That I am connived at in sending this letter (although
+no one has seen the contents) provided it shall be the last I will ever
+write to him: that I had more than once told him, that the single life
+was my choice; and this before Mr. Solmes was introduced as a visitor
+in our family: that Mr. Wyerley, and other gentlemen, knew it to be my
+choice, before himself was acquainted with any of us: that I had never
+been induced to receive a line from him on the subject, but that I
+thought he had not acted ungenerously by my brother; and yet had not
+been so handsomely treated by my friends, as he might have expected:
+but that had he even my friends on his side, I should have very great
+objections to him, were I to get over my choice of a single life, so
+really preferable to me as it is; and that I should have declared as
+much to him, had I not regarded him as more than a common visiter. On
+all these accounts, I desire, that the one more letter, which I will
+allow him to deposit in the usual place, may be the very last; and that
+only, to acquaint me with his acquiescence that it shall be so; at least
+till happier times.'
+
+This last I put in that he may not be quite desperate. But, if he take
+me at my word, I shall be rid of one of my tormentors.
+
+I have promised to lay before you all his letters, and my answers: I
+repeat that promise: and am the less solicitous, for that reason, to
+amplify upon the contents of either. But I cannot too often express my
+vexation, to be driven to such streights and difficulties, here at
+home, as oblige me to answer letters, (from a man I had not absolutely
+intended to encourage, and to whom I had really great objections,)
+filled as his are with such warm protestations, and written to me with a
+spirit of expectation.
+
+For, my dear, you never knew so bold a supposer. As commentators find
+beauties in an author, to which the author perhaps was a stranger; so he
+sometimes compliments me in high strains of gratitude for favours, and
+for a consideration, which I never designed him; insomuch that I am
+frequently under a necessity of explaining away the attributed goodness
+to him, which, if I shewed, I should have the less opinion of myself.
+
+In short, my dear, like a restiff horse, (as I have heard described by
+sportsmen,) he pains one's hands, and half disjoints one's arms, to rein
+him in. And, when you see his letters, you must form no judgment upon
+them, till you have read my answers. If you do, you will indeed think
+you have cause to attribute self-deceit, and throbs, and glows, to your
+friend: and yet, at other times, the contradictory nature complains,
+that I shew him as little favour, and my friends as much inveteracy,
+as if, in the rencontre betwixt my brother and him, he had been the
+aggressor; and as if the catastrophe had been as fatal, as it might have
+been.
+
+If he has a design by this conduct (sometimes complaining of my shyness,
+at others exalting in my imaginary favours) to induce me at one time to
+acquiesce with his compliments; at another to be more complaisant
+for his complaints; and if the contradiction be not the effect of his
+inattention and giddiness; I shall think him as deep and as artful (too
+probably, as practised) a creature, as ever lived; and were I to be sure
+of it, should hate him, if possible, worse than I do Solmes.
+
+But enough for the present of a creature so very various.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII
+
+MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE THURSDAY NIGHT, MARCH 9.
+
+
+I have not patience with any of the people you are with. I know not what
+to advise you to do. How do you know that you are not punishable
+for being the cause, though to your own loss, that the will of your
+grandfather is not complied with?--Wills are sacred things, child. You
+see, that they, even they, think so, who imagine they suffer by a will,
+through the distinction paid you in it.
+
+I allow of all your noble reasonings for what you did at the time: But,
+since such a charming, such a generous instance of filial duty is to go
+thus unrewarded, why should you not resume?
+
+Your grandfather knew the family-failing. He knew what a noble spirit
+you had to do good. He himself, perhaps, [excuse me, my dear,] had done
+too little in his life-time; and therefore he put it in your power to
+make up for the defects of the whole family. Were it to me, I would
+resume it. Indeed I would.
+
+You will say, you cannot do it, while you are with them. I don't know
+that. Do you think they can use you worse than they do? And is it not
+your right? And do they not make use of your own generosity to oppress
+you? Your uncle Harlowe is one trustee; your cousin Morden is the other:
+insist upon your right to your uncle; and write to your cousin Morden
+about it. This, I dare say, will make them alter their behaviour to you.
+
+Your insolent brother--what has he to do to controul you?--Were it me [I
+wish it were for one month, and no more] I'd shew him the difference. I
+would be in my own mansion, pursuing my charming schemes, and making all
+around me happy. I would set up my own chariot. I would visit them when
+they deserved it. But when my brother and sister gave themselves airs,
+I would let them know, that I was their sister, and not their servant:
+and, if that did not do, I would shut my gates against them; and bid
+them go and be company for each other.
+
+It must be confessed, however, that this brother and sister of yours,
+judging as such narrow spirits will ever judge, have some reason for
+treating you as they do. It must have long been a mortification to
+them (set disappointed love on her side, and avarice on his, out of the
+question) to be so much eclipsed by a younger sister. Such a sun in a
+family, where there are none but faint twinklers, how could they bear
+it! Why, my dear, they must look upon you as a prodigy among them: and
+prodigies, you know, though they obtain our admiration, never attract
+our love. The distance between you and them is immense. Their eyes ache
+to look up at you. What shades does your full day of merit cast
+upon them! Can you wonder, then, that they should embrace the first
+opportunity that offered, to endeavour to bring you down to their level?
+
+Depend upon it, my dear, you will have more of it, and more still, as
+you bear it.
+
+As to this odious Solmes, I wonder not at your aversion to him. It is
+needless to say any thing to you, who have so sincere any antipathy to
+him, to strengthen your dislike: Yet, who can resist her own talents?
+One of mine, as I have heretofore said, is to give an ugly likeness.
+Shall I indulge it?--I will. And the rather, as, in doing so, you
+will have my opinion in justification of your aversion to him, and
+in approbation of a steadiness that I ever admired, and must for ever
+approve of, in your temper.
+
+'I was twice in this wretch's company. At one of the times your Lovelace
+was there. I need not mention to you, who have such a pretty curiosity,
+(though at present, only a curiosity, you know,) the unspeakable
+difference.
+
+'Lovelace entertained the company in his lively gay way, and made
+every body laugh at one of his stories. It was before this creature was
+thought of for you. Solmes laughed too. It was, however, his laugh: for
+his first three years, at least, I imagine, must have been one continual
+fit of crying; and his muscles have never yet been able to recover a
+risible tone. His very smile [you never saw him smile, I believe; never
+at least gave him cause to smile] is so little natural to his features,
+that it appears to him as hideous as the grin of a man in malice.
+
+'I took great notice of him, as I do of all the noble lords of the
+creation, in their peculiarities; and was disgusted, nay, shocked at
+him, even then. I was glad, I remember, on that particular occasion,
+to see his strange features recovering their natural gloominess; though
+they did this but slowly, as if the muscles which contributed to his
+distortions, had turned upon rusty springs.
+
+'What a dreadful thing must even the love of such a husband be! For my
+part, were I his wife! (But what have I done to myself, to make such a
+supposition?) I should never have comfort but in his absence, or when
+I was quarreling with him. A splenetic woman, who must have somebody to
+find fault with, might indeed be brought to endure such a wretch:
+the sight of him would always furnish out the occasion, and all her
+servants, for that reason, and for that only, would have cause to blame
+their master. But how grievous and apprehensive a thing it must be for
+his wife, had she the least degree of delicacy, to catch herself in
+having done something to oblige him?
+
+'So much for his person. As to the other half of him, he is said to be
+an insinuating, creeping mortal to any body he hopes to be a gainer by:
+an insolent, overbearing one, where he has no such views: And is not
+this the genuine spirit of meanness? He is reported to be spiteful and
+malicious, even to the whole family of any single person who has once
+disobliged him; and to his own relations most of all. I am told, that
+they are none of them such wretches as himself. This may be one reason
+why he is for disinheriting them.
+
+'My Kitty, from one of his domestics, tells me, that his tenants hate
+him: and that he never had a servant who spoke well of him. Vilely
+suspicious of their wronging him (probably from the badness of his own
+heart) he is always changing.
+
+'His pockets, they say, are continually crammed with keys: so that, when
+he would treat a guest, (a friend he has not out of your family), he is
+half as long puzzling which is which, as his niggardly treat might be
+concluded in. And if it be wine, he always fetches it himself. Nor has
+he much trouble in doing so; for he has very few visiters--only those,
+whom business or necessity brings: for a gentleman who can help it,
+would rather be benighted, than put up at his house.'
+
+Yet this is the man they have found out (for considerations as sordid as
+those he is governed by) for a husband, that is to say, for a lord and
+master, for Miss Clarissa Harlowe!
+
+But, perhaps, he may not be quite so miserable as he is represented.
+Characters extremely good, or extremely bad, are seldom justly given.
+Favour for a person will exalt the one, as disfavour will sink the
+other. But your uncle Antony has told my mother, who objected to his
+covetousness, that it was intended to tie him up, as he called it, to
+your own terms; which would be with a hempen, rather than a matrimonial,
+cord, I dare say. But, is not this a plain indication, that even his
+own recommenders think him a mean creature; and that he must be articled
+with--perhaps for necessaries? But enough, and too much, of such a
+wretch as this!--You must not have him, my dear,--that I am clear
+in--though not so clear, how you will be able to avoid it, except you
+assert the independence to which your estate gives you a title.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Here my mother broke in upon me. She wanted to see what I had written. I
+was silly enough to read Solmes's character to her.
+
+She owned, that the man was not the most desirable of men; and that he
+had not the happiest appearance: But what, said she, is person in a man?
+And I was chidden for setting you against complying with your father's
+will. Then followed a lecture on the preference to be given in favour of
+a man who took care to discharge all his obligations to the world, and
+to keep all together, in opposition to a spendthrift or profligate. A
+fruitful subject you know, whether any particular person be meant by it,
+or not.
+
+Why will these wise parents, by saying too much against the persons they
+dislike, put one upon defending them? Lovelace is not a spendthrift;
+owes not obligations to the world; though, I doubt not, profligate
+enough. Then, putting one upon doing such but common justice, we
+must needs be prepossessed, truly!--And so perhaps we are put upon
+curiosities first, that is to say, how such a one or his friends may
+think of one: and then, but too probably, comes in a distinguishing
+preference, or something that looks exceedingly like it.
+
+My mother charged me at last, to write that side over again.--But
+excuse me, my good Mamma! I would not have the character lost upon any
+consideration; since my vein ran freely into it: and I never wrote to
+please myself, but I pleased you. A very good reason why--we have but
+one mind between us--only, that sometimes you are a little too grave,
+methinks; I, no doubt, a little too flippant in your opinion.
+
+This difference in our tempers, however, is probably the reason that we
+love one another so well, that in the words of Norris, no third love can
+come in betwixt. Since each, in the other's eye, having something amiss,
+and each loving the other well enough to bear being told of it (and the
+rather perhaps as neither wishes to mend it); this takes off a good deal
+from that rivalry which might encourage a little (if not a great deal)
+of that latent spleen, which in time might rise into envy, and that into
+ill-will. So, my dear, if this be the case, let each keep her fault, and
+much good may do her with it: and what an hero or heroine must he or
+she be, who can conquer a constitutional fault? Let it be avarice, as in
+some I dare not name: let it be gravity, as in my best friend: or let it
+be flippancy, as in--I need not say whom.
+
+It is proper to acquaint you, that I was obliged to comply with my
+mother's curiosity, [my mother has her share, her full share, of
+curiosity, my dear,] and to let her see here-and-there some passages in
+your letters--
+
+I am broken in upon--but I will tell you by-and-by what passed between
+my mother and me on this occasion--and the rather, as she had her GIRL,
+her favourite HICKMAN, and your LOVELACE, all at once in her eye, in her
+part of the conversation.
+
+Thus it was.
+
+'I cannot but think, Nancy, said she, after all, that there is a little
+hardship in Miss Harlowe's case: and yet (as her mother says) it is
+a grating thing to have a child, who was always noted for her duty
+in smaller points, to stand in opposition to her parents' will in the
+greater; yea, in the greatest of all. And now, to middle the matter
+between both, it is pity, that the man they favour has not that sort of
+merit which a person of a mind so delicate as that of Miss Harlowe might
+reasonably expect in a husband.--But then, this man is surely preferable
+to a libertine: to a libertine too, who has had a duel with her own
+brother; fathers and mothers must think so, were it not for that
+circumstance--and it is strange if they do not know best.'
+
+And so they must, thought I, from their experience, if no little dirty
+views give them also that prepossession in one man's favour, which they
+are so apt to censure their daughters for having in another's--and
+if, as I may add in your case, they have no creeping, old, musty uncle
+Antonys to strengthen their prepossessions, as he does my mother's.
+Poor, creeping, positive soul, what has such an old bachelor as he to
+do, to prate about the duties of children to parents; unless he had a
+notion that parents owe some to their children? But your mother, by her
+indolent meekness, let me call it, has spoiled all the three brothers.
+
+'But you see, child, proceeded my mother, what a different behaviour
+MINE is to YOU. I recommend to you one of the soberest, yet politest,
+men in England--'
+
+I think little of my mother's politest, my dear. She judges of honest
+Hickman for her daughter, as she would have done, I suppose, twenty
+years ago, for herself.
+
+'Of a good family, continued my mother; a fine, clear, and improving
+estate [a prime consideration with my mother, as well as with some other
+folks, whom you know]: and I beg and I pray you to encourage him: at
+least not to use him the worse, for his being so obsequious to you.'
+
+Yes, indeed! To use him kindly, that he may treat me familiarly--but
+distance to the men-wretches is best--I say.
+
+'Yet all will hardly prevail upon you to do as I would have you. What
+would you say, were I to treat you as Miss Harlowe's father and mother
+treat her?
+
+'What would I say, Madam!--That's easily answered. I would say nothing.
+Can you think such usage, and to such a young lady, is to be borne?
+
+'Come, come, Nancy, be not so hasty: you have heard but one side; and
+that there is more to be said is plain, by your reading to me but parts
+of her letters. They are her parents. They must know best. Miss Harlowe,
+as fine a child as she is, must have done something, must have said
+something, (you know how they loved her,) to make them treat her thus.
+
+'But if she should be blameless, Madam, how does your own supposition
+condemn them?'
+
+Then came up Solmes's great estate; his good management of it--'A little
+too NEAR indeed,' was the word!--[O how money-lovers, thought I, will
+palliate! Yet my mother is a princess in spirit to this Solmes!] 'What
+strange effects, added she, have prepossession and love upon young
+ladies!'
+
+I don't know how it is, my dear; but people take high delight in finding
+out folks in love. Curiosity begets curiosity. I believe that's the
+thing.
+
+She proceeded to praise Mr. Lovelace's person, and his qualifications
+natural and acquired. But then she would judge as mothers will judge,
+and as daughters are very loth to judge: but could say nothing in answer
+to your offer of living single; and breaking with him--if--if--[three or
+four if's she made of one good one, if] that could be depended on.
+
+But still obedience without reserve, reason what I will, is the burden
+of my mother's song: and this, for my sake, as well as for yours.
+
+I must needs say, that I think duty to parents is a very meritorious
+excellence. But I bless God I have not your trials. We can all be good
+when we have no temptation nor provocation to the contrary: but few
+young persons (who can help themselves too as you can) would bear what
+you bear.
+
+I will now mention all that is upon my mind, in relation to the
+behaviour of your father and uncles, and the rest of them, because
+I would not offend you: but I have now a higher opinion of my own
+sagacity, than ever I had, in that I could never cordially love any one
+of your family but yourself. I am not born to like them. But it is my
+duty to be sincere to my friend: and this will excuse her Anna Howe to
+Miss Clarissa Harlowe.
+
+I ought indeed to have excepted your mother; a lady to be reverenced:
+and now to be pitied. What must have been her treatment, to be thus
+subjugated, as I may call it? Little did the good old viscount think,
+when he married his darling, his only daughter, to so well-appearing a
+gentleman, and to her own liking too, that she would have been so much
+kept down. Another would call your father a tyrant, if I must not: all
+the world that know him, do call him so; and if you love your mother,
+you should not be very angry at the world for taking that liberty.
+
+Yet, after all, I cannot help thinking, that she is the less to be
+pitied, as she may be said (be the gout, or what will, the occasion
+of his moroseness) to have long behaved unworthy of her birth and fine
+qualities, in yielding so much as she yields to encroaching spirits
+[you may confine the reflection to your brother, if it will pain you
+to extend it]; and this for the sake of preserving a temporary peace to
+herself; which was the less worth endeavouring to preserve, as it always
+produced a strength in the will of others, which subjected her to an
+arbitrariness that of course grew, and became established, upon her
+patience.--And now to give up the most deserving of her children
+(against her judgment) a sacrifice to the ambition and selfishness of
+the least deserving!--But I fly from this subject--having I fear, said
+too much to be forgiven--and yet much less than is in my heart to say
+upon the over-meek subject.
+
+Mr. Hickman is expected from London this evening. I have desired him to
+inquire after Lovelace's life and conversation in town. If he has not
+inquired, I shall be very angry with him. Don't expect a very good
+account of either. He is certainly an intriguing wretch, and full of
+inventions.
+
+Upon my word, I most heartily despise that sex! I wish they would let
+our fathers and mothers alone; teasing them to tease us with their
+golden promises, and protestations and settlements, and the rest
+of their ostentatious nonsense. How charmingly might you and I live
+together, and despise them all!--But to be cajoled, wire-drawn,
+and ensnared, like silly birds, into a state of bondage, or vile
+subordination; to be courted as princesses for a few weeks, in order to
+be treated as slaves for the rest of our lives. Indeed, my dear, as you
+say of Solmes, I cannot endure them!--But for your relations [friends no
+more will I call them, unworthy as they are even of the other name!]
+to take such a wretch's price as that; and to the cutting off of all
+reversions from his own family:--How must a mind but commonly just
+resist such a measure!
+
+Mr. Hickman shall sound Lord M. upon the subject you recommend. But
+beforehand, I can tell you what he and what his sisters will say, when
+they are sounded. Who would not be proud of such a relation as Miss
+Clarissa Harlowe?--Mrs. Fortescue told me, that they are all your very
+great admirers.
+
+If I have not been clear enough in my advice about what you shall do,
+let me say, that I can give it in one word: it is only by re-urging you
+to RESUME. If you do, all the rest will follow.
+
+We are told here, that Mrs. Norton, as well as your aunt Hervey, has
+given her opinion on the implicit side of the question. If she can
+think, that the part she has had in your education, and your own
+admirable talents and acquirements, are to be thrown away upon such a
+worthless creature as Solmes, I could heartily quarrel with her. You may
+think I say this to lessen your regard for the good woman. And perhaps
+not wholly without cause, if you do. For, to own the truth, methinks,
+I don't love her so well as I should do, did you love her so apparently
+less, that I could be out of doubt, that you love me better.
+
+Your mother tells you, 'That you will have great trials: that you are
+under your father's discipline.'--The word is enough for me to despise
+them who give occasion for its use.--'That it is out of her power to
+help you!' And again: 'That if you have any favour to hope for, it must
+be by the mediation of your uncles.' I suppose you will write to the
+oddities, since you are forbid to see them. But can it be, that such a
+lady, such a sister, such a wife, such a mother, has no influence in her
+own family? Who, indeed, as you say, if this be so, would marry, that
+can live single? My choler is again beginning to rise. RESUME, my dear:
+and that is all I will give myself time to say further, lest I offend
+you when I cannot serve you--only this, that I am
+
+Your truly affectionate friend and servant, ANNA HOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE FRIDAY, MARCH 10.
+
+
+You will permit me, my dear, to touch upon a few passages in your last
+letter, that affect me sensibly.
+
+In the first place, you must allow me to say, low as I am in spirits,
+that I am very angry with you, for your reflections on my relations,
+particularly on my father and mother, and on the memory of my
+grandfather. Nor, my dear, does your own mother always escape the keen
+edge of your vivacity. One cannot one's self forbear to write or speak
+freely of those we love and honour, when grief from imagined hard
+treatment wrings the heart: but it goes against one to hear any body
+else take the same liberties. Then you have so very strong a manner of
+expression where you take a distaste, that when passion has subdued,
+and I come (upon reflection) to see by your severity what I have given
+occasion for, I cannot help condemning myself.
+
+But least of all can I bear that you should reflect upon my mother.
+What, my dear, if her meekness should not be rewarded? Is the want of
+reward, or the want even of a grateful acknowledgement, a reason for us
+to dispense with what we think our duty? They were my father's lively
+spirits that first made him an interest in her gentle bosom. They were
+the same spirits turned inward, as I have heretofore observed,* that
+made him so impatient when the cruel malady seized him. He always loved
+my mother: And would not LOVE and PITY excusably, nay laudably, make a
+good wife (who was an hourly witness of his pangs, when labouring under
+a paroxysm, and his paroxysms becoming more and more frequent, as well
+as more and more severe) give up her own will, her own likings,
+to oblige a husband, thus afflicted, whose love for her was
+unquestionable?--And if so, was it not too natural [human nature is not
+perfect, my dear] that the husband thus humoured by the wife, should be
+unable to bear controul from any body else, much less contradiction from
+his children?
+
+
+     * See Letter V.
+
+
+If then you would avoid my highest displeasure, you must spare my
+mother: and, surely, you will allow me, with her, to pity, as well as to
+love and honour my father.
+
+I have no friend but you to whom I can appeal, to whom I dare complain.
+Unhappily circumstanced as I am, it is but too probable that I shall
+complain, because it is but too probably that I shall have more and more
+cause given me for complaint. But be it your part, if I do, to sooth my
+angry passions, and to soften my resentments; and this the rather, as
+you know what an influence your advice has upon me; and as you must
+also know, that the freedoms you take with my friends, can have no other
+tendency, but to weaken the sense of my duty to them, without answering
+any good end to myself.
+
+I cannot help owning, however, that I am pleased to have you join with
+me in opinion of the contempt which Mr. Solmes deserves from me. But
+yet, permit me to say, that he is not quite so horrible a creature as
+you make him: as to his person, I mean; for with regard to his mind,
+by all I have heard, you have done him but justice: but you have such
+a talent at an ugly likeness, and such a vivacity, that they sometimes
+carry you out of verisimilitude. In short, my dear, I have known you, in
+more instances than one, sit down resolved to write all that wit, rather
+than strict justice, could suggest upon the given occasion. Perhaps it
+may be thought, that I should say the less on this particular subject,
+because your dislike of him arises from love to me: But should it not be
+our aim to judge of ourselves, and of every thing that affects us, as
+we may reasonably imagine other people would judge of us and of our
+actions?
+
+As to the advice you give, to resume my estate, I am determined not to
+litigate with my father, let what will be the consequence to myself.
+I may give you, at another time, a more particular answer to your
+reasonings on this subject: but, at present, will only observe, that
+it is in my opinion, that Lovelace himself would hardly think me worth
+addressing, were he to know this would be my resolution. These men, my
+dear, with all their flatteries, look forward to the PERMANENT. Indeed,
+it is fit they should. For love must be a very foolish thing to look
+back upon, when it has brought persons born to affluence into indigence,
+and laid a generous mind under obligation and dependence.
+
+You very ingeniously account for the love we bear to one another, from
+the difference in our tempers. I own, I should not have thought of that.
+There may possibly be something in it: but whether there be or not,
+whenever I am cool, and give myself time to reflect, I will love you the
+better for the correction you give, be as severe as you will upon me.
+Spare me not, therefore, my dear friend, whenever you think me in the
+least faulty. I love your agreeable raillery: you know I always did:
+nor, however over-serious you think me, did I ever think you flippant,
+as you harshly call it. One of the first conditions of our mutual
+friendship was, each should say or write to the other whatever was upon
+her mind, without any offence to be taken: a condition, that is indeed
+indispensable in friendship.
+
+I knew your mother would be for implicit obedience in a child. I am
+sorry my case is so circumstanced, that I cannot comply. It would be
+my duty to do so, if I could. You are indeed very happy, that you have
+nothing but your own agreeable, yet whimsical, humours to contend with,
+in the choice she invites you to make of Mr. Hickman. How happy I should
+be, to be treated with so much lenity!--I should blush to have my mother
+say, that she begged and prayed me, and all in vain, to encourage a man
+so unexceptionable as Mr. Hickman.
+
+Indeed, my beloved Miss Howe, I am ashamed to have your mother say, with
+ME in her view, 'What strange effects have prepossession and love upon
+young creatures of our sex!' This touches me the more sensibly, because
+you yourself, my dear, are so ready to persuade me into it.
+
+I should be very blamable to endeavour to hide any the least bias
+upon my mind, from you: and I cannot but say--that this man--this
+Lovelace--is a man that might be liked well enough, if he bore such
+a character as Mr. Hickman bears; and even if there were hopes of
+reclaiming him. And further still I will acknowledge, that I believe it
+possible that one might be driven, by violent measures, step by step, as
+it were, into something that might be called--I don't know what to
+call it--a conditional kind of liking, or so. But as to the word
+LOVE--justifiable and charming as it is in some cases, (that is to say,
+in all the relative, in all the social, and, what is still beyond both,
+in all our superior duties, in which it may be properly called divine;)
+it has, methinks, in the narrow, circumscribed, selfish, peculiar sense,
+in which you apply it to me, (the man too so little to be approved of
+for his morals, if all that report says of him be true,) no pretty sound
+with it. Treat me as freely as you will in all other respects, I will
+love you, as I have said, the better for your friendly freedom. But,
+methinks, I could be glad that you would not let this imputation pass so
+glibly from your pen, or your lips, as attributable to one of your own
+sex, whether I be the person or not: since the other must have a double
+triumph, when a person of your delicacy (armed with such contempts of
+them all, as you would have one think) can give up a friend, with an
+exultation over her weakness, as a silly, love-sick creature.
+
+I could make some other observations upon the contents of your last two
+letters; but my mind is not free enough at present. The occasion for the
+above stuck with me; and I could not help taking the earliest notice of
+them.
+
+Having written to the end of my second sheet, I will close this letter,
+and in my next, acquaint you with all that has happened here since my
+last.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SATURDAY, MARCH 11.
+
+
+I have had such taunting messages, and such repeated avowals of ill
+offices, brought me from my brother and sister, if I do no comply with
+their wills, (delivered, too, with provoking sauciness by Betty Barnes,)
+that I have thought it proper, before I entered upon my intended address
+to my uncles, in pursuance of the hint given me in my mother's letter,
+to expostulate a little with them. But I have done it in such a manner,
+as will give you (if you please to take it as you have done some parts
+of my former letters) great advantage over me. In short, you will have
+more cause than ever, to declare me far gone in love, if my reasons for
+the change of my style in these letters, with regard to Mr. Lovelace, do
+not engage your more favourable opinion.--For I have thought proper to
+give them their own way: and, since they will have it, that I have a
+preferable regard for Mr. Lovelace, I give them cause rather to confirm
+their opinion than doubt it.
+
+These are my reasons in brief, for the alteration of my style.
+
+In the first place, they have grounded their principal argument for my
+compliance with their will, upon my acknowledgement that my heart is
+free; and so, supposing I give up no preferable person, my opposition
+has the look of downright obstinacy in their eyes; and they argue,
+that at worst, my aversion to Solmes is an aversion that may be easily
+surmounted, and ought to be surmounted in duty to my father, and for the
+promotion of family views.
+
+Next, although they build upon this argument in order to silence me,
+they seem not to believe me, but treat me as disgracefully, as if I
+were in love with one of my father's footmen: so that my conditional
+willingness to give up Mr. Lovelace has procured me no favour.
+
+In the next place, I cannot but think, that my brother's antipathy
+to Mr. Lovelace is far from being well grounded: the man's inordinate
+passion for the sex is the crime that is always rung in my ears: and a
+very great one it is: But, does my brother recriminate upon him thus
+in love to me?--No--his whole behaviour shews me, that that is not
+his principal motive, and that he thinks me rather in his way than
+otherwise.
+
+It is then the call of justice, as I may say, to speak a little in
+favour of a man, who, although provoked by my brother, did not do
+him all the mischief he could have done him, and which my brother had
+endeavoured to do him. It might not be amiss therefore, I thought, to
+alarm them a little with apprehension, that the methods they are taking
+with me are the very reverse of those they should take to answer the end
+they design by them. And after all, what is the compliment I make Mr.
+Lovelace, if I allow it to be thought that I do really prefer him to
+such a man as him they terrify me with? Then, my Miss Howe [concluded I]
+accuses me of a tameness which subject me to insults from my brother: I
+will keep that dear friend in my eye; and for all these considerations,
+try what a little of her spirit will do--sit it ever so awkwardly upon
+me.
+
+In this way of thinking, I wrote to my brother and sister. This is my
+letter to him.
+
+
+
+TREATED as I am, and, in a great measure, if not wholly, by your
+instigations, Brother, you must permit me to expostulate with you upon
+the occasion. It is not my intention to displease you in what I am going
+to write: and yet I must deal freely with you: the occasion calls for
+it.
+
+And permit me, in the first place, to remind you, that I am your sister;
+and not your servant; and that, therefore, the bitter revilings and
+passionate language brought me from you, upon an occasion in which you
+have no reason to prescribe to me, are neither worthy of my character to
+bear, nor of yours to offer.
+
+Put the case, that I were to marry the man you dislike: and that he were
+not to make a polite or tender husband, Is that a reason for you to be
+an unpolite and disobliging brother?--Why must you, Sir, anticipate my
+misfortunes, were such a case to happen?--Let me tell you plainly,
+that the man who could treat me as a wife, worse than you of late have
+treated me as a sister, must be a barbarous man indeed.
+
+Ask yourself, I pray you, Sir, if you would thus have treated your
+sister Bella, had she thought fit to receive the addresses of the man so
+much hated by you?--If not, let me caution you, my Brother, not to take
+your measures by what you think will be borne, but rather by what ought
+to be offered.
+
+How would you take it, if you had a brother, who, in a like case, were
+to act by you, as you do by me?--You cannot but remember what a laconic
+answer you gave even to my father, who recommended to you Miss Nelly
+D'Oily--You did not like her, were your words: and that was thought
+sufficient.
+
+You must needs think, that I cannot but know to whom to attribute my
+disgraces, when I recollect my father's indulgence to me, permitting
+me to decline several offers; and to whom, that a common cause is
+endeavoured to be made, in favour of a man whose person and manners
+are more exceptional than those of any of the gentlemen I have been
+permitted to refuse.
+
+I offer not to compare the two men together: nor is there indeed the
+least comparison to be made between them. All the difference to
+the one's disadvantage, if I did, is but one point--of the greatest
+importance, indeed--But to whom of most importance?--To myself, surely,
+were I to encourage his application: of the least to you. Nevertheless,
+if you do not, by your strange politics, unite that man and me as joint
+sufferers in one cause, you shall find me as much resolved to renounce
+him, as I am to refuse the other. I have made an overture to this
+purpose: I hope you will not give me reason to confirm my apprehensions,
+that it will be owing to you if it be not accepted.
+
+It is a sad thing to have it to say, without being conscious of ever
+having given you cause of offence, that I have in you a brother, but not
+a friend.
+
+Perhaps you will not condescend to enter into the reasons of your
+late and present conduct with a foolish sister. But if politeness, if
+civility, be not due to that character, and to my sex, justice is.
+
+Let me take the liberty further to observe, that the principal end of
+a young man's education at the university, is, to learn him to reason
+justly, and to subdue the violence of his passions. I hope, Brother,
+that you will not give room for any body who knows us both, to conclude,
+that the toilette has taught the one more of the latter doctrine, than
+the university has taught the other. I am truly sorry to have cause
+to say, that I have heard it often remarked, that your uncontrouled
+passions are not a credit to your liberal education.
+
+I hope, Sir, that you will excuse the freedom I have taken with you: you
+have given me too much reason for it, and you have taken much greater
+with me, without reason:--so, if you are offended, ought to look at the
+cause, and not at the effect:--then examining yourself, that cause will
+cease, and there will not be any where a more accomplished gentleman
+than my brother.
+
+Sisterly affection, I do assure you, Sir, (unkindly as you have used
+me,) and not the pertness which of late you have been so apt to impute
+to me, is my motive in this hint. Let me invoke your returning kindness,
+my only brother! And give me cause, I beseech you, to call you my
+compassionating friend. For I am, and ever will be,
+
+Your affectionate sister, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+This is my brother's answer.
+
+
+TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE
+
+I KNOW there will be no end of your impertinent scribble, if I don't
+write to you. I write therefore: but, without entering into argument
+with such a conceited and pert preacher and questioner, it is, to forbid
+you to plague me with your quaint nonsense. I know not what wit in a
+woman is good for, but to make her overvalue herself, and despise every
+other person. Yours, Miss Pert, has set you above your duty, and above
+being taught or prescribed to, either by parents, or any body else. But
+go on, Miss: your mortification will be the greater; that's all, child.
+It shall, I assure you, if I can make it so, so long as you prefer that
+villainous Lovelace, (who is justly hated by all your family) to every
+body. We see by your letter now (what we too justly suspected before),
+most evidently we see, the hold he has got of your forward heart. But
+the stronger the hold, the greater must be the force (and you shall have
+enough of that) to tear such a miscreant from it. In me, notwithstanding
+your saucy lecturing, and your saucy reflections before, you are sure of
+a friend, as well as of a brother, if it be not your own fault. But if
+you will still think of such a wretch as that Lovelace, never expect
+either friend or brother in
+
+JA. HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I will now give you a copy of my letter to my sister; with her answer.
+
+
+IN what, my dear Sister, have I offended you, that instead of
+endeavouring to soften my father's anger against me, (as I am sure I
+should have done for you, had my unhappy case been yours,) you should,
+in so hard-hearted a manner, join to aggravate not only his displeasure,
+but my mother's against me. Make but my case your own, my dear Bella;
+and suppose you were commanded to marry Mr. Lovelace, (to whom you
+are believed to have such an antipathy,) would you not think it a very
+grievous injunction?--Yet cannot your dislike to Mr. Lovelace be greater
+than mine is to Mr. Solmes. Nor are love and hatred voluntary passions.
+
+My brother may perhaps think it a proof of a manly spirit, to shew
+himself an utter stranger to the gentle passions. We have both heard him
+boast, that he never loved with distinction: and, having predominating
+passions, and checked in his first attempt, perhaps he never will. It
+is the less wonder, then, raw from the college, so lately himself the
+tutored, that he should set up for a tutor, a prescriber to our
+gentler sex, whose tastes and manners are differently formed: for what,
+according to his account, are colleges, but classes of tyrants, from
+the upper students over the lower, and from them to the tutor?--That he,
+with such masculine passions should endeavour to controul and bear down
+an unhappy sister, in a case where his antipathy, and, give me leave
+to say, his ambition [once you would have allowed the latter to be his
+fault] can be gratified by so doing, may not be quite so much to be
+wondered at--but that a sister should give up the cause of a sister, and
+join with him to set her father and mother against her, in a case that
+might have been her own--indeed, my Bella, this is not pretty in you.
+
+There was a time that Mr. Lovelace was thought reclaimable, and when it
+was far from being deemed a censurable view to hope to bring back to the
+paths of virtue and honour, a man of his sense and understanding. I am
+far from wishing to make the experiment: but nevertheless will say, that
+if I have not a regard for him, the disgraceful methods taken to compel
+me to receive the addresses of such a man as Mr. Solmes are enough to
+induce it.
+
+Do you, my Sister, for one moment, lay aside all prejudice, and compare
+the two men in their births, their educations, their persons, their
+understandings, their manners, their air, and their whole deportments;
+and in their fortunes too, taking in reversions; and then judge of both;
+yet, as I have frequently offered, I will live single with all my heart,
+if that will do.
+
+I cannot thus live in displeasure and disgrace. I would, if I could,
+oblige all my friends. But will it be just, will it be honest, to marry
+a man I cannot endure? If I have not been used to oppose the will of
+my father, but have always delighted to oblige and obey, judge of the
+strength of my antipathy, by the painful opposition I am obliged to
+make, and cannot help it.
+
+Pity then, my dearest Bella, my sister, my friend, my companion, my
+adviser, as you used to be when I was happy, and plead for
+
+Your ever-affectionate, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+TO MISS CLARY HARLOWE
+
+Let it be pretty or not pretty, in your wise opinion, I shall speak my
+mind, I will assure you, both of you and your conduct in relation
+to this detested Lovelace. You are a fond foolish girl with all your
+wisdom. Your letter shews that enough in twenty places. And as to your
+cant of living single, nobody will believe you. This is one of your
+fetches to avoid complying with your duty, and the will of the most
+indulgent parents in the world, as yours have been to you, I am
+sure--though now they see themselves finely requited for it.
+
+We all, indeed, once thought your temper soft and amiable: but why was
+it? You never were contradicted before: you had always your own way. But
+no sooner do you meet with opposition in your wishes to throw yourself
+away upon a vile rake, but you shew what you are. You cannot love Mr.
+Solmes! that's the pretence; but Sister, Sister, let me tell you, that
+is because Lovelace has got into your fond heart:--a wretch hated,
+justly hated, by us all; and who has dipped his hands in the blood of
+your brother: yet him you would make our relation, would you?
+
+I have no patience with you, but for putting the case of my liking such
+a vile wretch as him. As to the encouragement you pretend he received
+formerly from all our family, it was before we knew him to be so vile:
+and the proofs that had such force upon us, ought to have had some upon
+you:--and would, had you not been a foolish forward girl; as on this
+occasion every body sees you are.
+
+O how you run out in favour of the wretch!--His birth, his
+education, his person, his understanding, his manners, his air, his
+fortune--reversions too taken in to augment the surfeiting catalogue!
+What a fond string of lovesick praises is here! And yet you would live
+single--Yes, I warrant!--when so many imaginary perfections dance before
+your dazzled eye!--But no more--I only desire, that you will not, while
+you seem to have such an opinion of your wit, think every one else a
+fool; and that you can at pleasure, by your whining flourishes, make us
+all dance after your lead.
+
+Write as often as you will, this shall be the last answer or notice you
+shall have upon this subject from
+
+ARABELLA HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I had in readiness a letter for each of my uncles; and meeting in the
+garden a servant of my uncle Harlowe, I gave him to deliver according to
+their respective directions. If I am to form a judgment by the answers I
+have received from my brother and sister, as above, I must not, I
+doubt, expect any good from those letters. But when I have tried every
+expedient, I shall have the less to blame myself for, if any thing
+unhappy should fall out. I will send you copies of both, when I shall
+see what notice they will be thought worthy of, if of any.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SUNDAY NIGHT, MARCH 12.
+
+
+This man, this Lovelace, gives me great uneasiness. He is extremely bold
+and rash. He was this afternoon at our church--in hopes to see me, I
+suppose: and yet, if he had such hopes, his usual intelligence must have
+failed him.
+
+Shorey was at church; and a principal part of her observation was upon
+his haughty and proud behaviour when he turned round in the pew where he
+sat to our family-pew. My father and both my uncles were there; so were
+my mother and sister. My brother happily was not.--They all came home in
+disorder. Nor did the congregation mind any body but him; it being his
+first appearance there since the unhappy rencounter.
+
+What did the man come for, if he intended to look challenge and
+defiance, as Shorey says he did, and as others, it seems, thought he
+did, as well as she? Did he come for my sake; and, by behaving in such
+a manner to those present of my family, imagine he was doing me either
+service or pleasure?--He knows how they hate him: nor will he take
+pains, would pains do, to obviate their hatred.
+
+You and I, my dear, have often taken notice of his pride; and you have
+rallied him upon it; and instead of exculpating himself, he has owned
+it: and by owning it he has thought he has done enough.
+
+For my own part, I thought pride in his case an improper subject for
+raillery.--People of birth and fortune to be proud, is so needless,
+so mean a vice!--If they deserve respect, they will have it, without
+requiring it. In other words, for persons to endeavour to gain respect
+by a haughty behaviour, is to give a proof that they mistrust their own
+merit: To make confession that they know that their actions will not
+attract it.--Distinction or quality may be prided in by those to whom
+distinction or quality is a new thing. And then the reflection and
+contempt which such bring upon themselves by it, is a counter-balance.
+
+Such added advantages, too, as this man has in his person and mien:
+learned also, as they say he is: Such a man to be haughty, to be
+imperious!--The lines of his own face at the same time condemning
+him--how wholly inexcusable!--Proud of what? Not of doing well: the only
+justifiable pride.--Proud of exterior advantages!--Must not one be led
+by such a stop-short pride, as I may call it, in him or her who has it,
+to mistrust the interior? Some people may indeed be afraid, that if
+they did not assume, they would be trampled upon. A very narrow fear,
+however, since they trample upon themselves, who can fear this. But this
+man must be secure that humility would be an ornament to him.
+
+He has talents indeed: but those talents and his personal advantages
+have been snares to him. It is plain they have. And this shews, that,
+weighed in an equal balance, he would be found greatly wanting.
+
+Had my friends confided as they did at first, in that discretion which
+they do not accuse me of being defective in, I dare say I should have
+found him out: and then should have been as resolute to dismiss him, as
+I was to dismiss others, and as I am never to have Mr. Solmes. O that
+they did but know my heart!--It shall sooner burst, than voluntarily,
+uncompelled, undriven, dictate a measure that shall cast a slur either
+upon them, or upon my sex.
+
+Excuse me, my dear friend, for these grave soliloquies, as I may call
+them. How have I run from reflection to reflection!--But the occasion is
+recent--They are all in commotion below upon it.
+
+Shorey says, that Mr. Lovelace watched my mother's eye, and bowed to
+her: and she returned the compliment. He always admired my mother. She
+would not, I believe, have hated him, had she not been bid to hate him:
+and had it not been for the rencounter between him and her only son.
+
+Dr. Lewen was at church; and observing, as every one else did, the
+disorder into which Mr. Lovelace's appearance* had put all our family,
+was so good as to engage him in conversation, when the service was over,
+till they were all gone to their coaches.
+
+
+     * See Letter XXXI, for Mr. Lovelace's account of his
+     behaviour and intentions in his appearance at church.
+
+
+My uncles had my letters in the morning. They, as well as my father,
+are more and more incensed against me, it seems. Their answers, if
+they vouchsafe to answer me, will demonstrate, I doubt not, the
+unseasonableness of this rash man's presence at our church.
+
+They are angry also, as I understand, with my mother, for returning
+his compliment. What an enemy is hatred, even to the common forms of
+civility! which, however, more distinguish the payer of a compliment,
+than the receiver. But they all see, they say, that there is but one way
+to put an end to his insults. So I shall suffer: And in what will the
+rash man have benefited himself, or mended his prospects?
+
+I am extremely apprehensive that this worse than ghost-like appearance
+of his, bodes some still bolder step. If he come hither (and very
+desirous he is of my leave to come) I am afraid there will be murder. To
+avoid that, if there were no other way, I would most willingly be buried
+alive.
+
+They are all in consultation--upon my letters, I suppose--so they were
+in the morning; which occasioned my uncles to be at our church. I will
+send you the copies of those letters, as I promised in my last, when
+I see whether I can give you their answers with them. This letter is
+all--I cannot tell what--the effect of apprehension and displeasure
+at the man who has occasioned my apprehensions. Six lines would have
+contained all that is in it to the purpose of my story.
+
+CL. H.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI
+
+MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ. MONDAY, MARCH 13.
+
+
+In vain dost thou* and thy compeers press me to go to town, while I am
+in such an uncertainty as I am in at present with this proud beauty.
+All the ground I have hitherto gained with her is entirely owing to her
+concern for the safety of people whom I have reason to hate.
+
+     *These gentlemen affected what they called the Roman style
+     (to wit, the thee and the thou) in their letters: and it was
+     an agreed rule with them, to take in good part whatever
+     freedoms they treated each other with, if the passages were
+     written in that style.
+
+Write then, thou biddest me, if I will not come. That, indeed, I can do;
+and as well without a subject, as with one. And what follows shall be a
+proof of it.
+
+The lady's malevolent brother has now, as I told thee at M. Hall,
+introduced another man; the most unpromising in his person and
+qualities, the most formidable in his offers, that has yet appeared.
+
+This man has by his proposals captivated every soul of the
+Harlowes--Soul! did I say--There is not a soul among them but my
+charmer's: and she, withstanding them all, is actually confined, and
+otherwise maltreated by a father the most gloomy and positive; at the
+instigation of a brother the most arrogant and selfish. But thou knowest
+their characters; and I will not therefore sully my paper with them.
+
+But is it not a confounded thing to be in love with one, who is the
+daughter, the sister, the niece, of a family, I must eternally despise?
+And, the devil of it, that love increasing with her--what shall I call
+it?--'Tis not scorn:--'Tis not pride:--'Tis not the insolence of an
+adored beauty:--But 'tis to virtue, it seems, that my difficulties are
+owin; and I pay for not being a sly sinner, an hypocrite; for being
+regardless of my reputation; for permittin slander to open its mouth
+against me. But is it necessary for such a one as I, who have been used
+to carry all before me, upon my own terms--I, who never inspired a fear,
+that had not a discernibly-predominant mixture of love in it, to be a
+hypocrite?--Well says the poet:
+
+ He who seems virtuous does but act a part;
+ And shews not his own nature, but his art.
+
+Well, but it seems I must practise for this art, if it would succeed
+with this truly-admirable creature; but why practise for it?--Cannot
+I indeed reform?--I have but one vice;--Have I, Jack?--Thou knowest my
+heart, if any man living does. As far as I know it myself, thou knowest
+it. But 'tis a cursed deceiver; for it has many a time imposed upon its
+master--Master, did I say? That I am not now; nor have I been from the
+moment I beheld this angel of a woman. Prepared indeed as I was by her
+character before I saw her: For what a mind must that be, which,
+though not virtuous itself, admires not virtue in another?--My visit
+to Arabella, owing to a mistake of the sister, into which, as thou hast
+heard me say, I was led by the blundering uncle; who was to introduce
+me (but lately come from abroad) to the divinity, as I thought; but,
+instead of her, carried me to a mere mortal. And much difficulty had I,
+so fond and forward my lady! to get off without forfeiting all with a
+family I intended should give me a goddess.
+
+I have boasted that I was once in love before:--and indeed I thought
+I was. It was in my early manhood--with that quality jilt, whose
+infidelity I have vowed to revenge upon as many of the sex as shall come
+into my power. I believe, in different climes, I have already
+sacrificed an hecatomb to my Nemesis, in pursuance of this vow. But upon
+recollecting what I was then, and comparing it with what I find myself
+now, I cannot say that I was ever in love before.
+
+What was it then, dost thou ask me, since the disappointment had such
+effects upon me, when I found myself jilted, that I was hardly kept in
+my senses?--Why, I'll grant thee what, as near as I can remember; for
+it was a great while ago:--It was--Egad, Jack, I can hardly tell what
+it was--but a vehement aspiration after a novelty, I think. Those
+confounded poets, with their terrenely-celestial descriptions, did as
+much with me as the lady: they fired my imagination, and set me upon
+a desire to become a goddess-maker. I must needs try my new-fledged
+pinions in sonnet, elogy, and madrigal. I must have a Cynthia, a Stella,
+a Sacharissa, as well as the best of them: darts and flames, and the
+devil knows what, must I give to my cupid. I must create beauty, and
+place it where nobody else could find it: and many a time have I been at
+a loss for a subject, when my new-created goddess has been kinder than
+it was proper for my plaintive sonnet that she should be.
+
+Then I found I had a vanity of another sort in my passion: I found
+myself well received among the women in general; and I thought it a
+pretty lady-like tyranny [I was then very young, and very vain!] to
+single out some one of the sex, to make half a score jealous. And I can
+tell thee, it had its effect: for many an eye have I made to sparkle
+with rival indignation: many a cheek glow; and even many a fan have I
+caused to be snapped at a sister-beauty; accompanied with a reflection
+perhaps at being seen alone with a wild young fellow who could not be in
+private with both at once.
+
+In short, Jack, it was more pride than love, as I now find it, that put
+me upon making such a confounded rout about losing that noble varletess.
+I thought she loved me at least as well as I believed I loved her:
+nay, I had the vanity to suppose she could not help it. My friends were
+pleased with my choice. They wanted me to be shackled: for early did
+they doubt my morals, as to the sex. They saw, that the dancing, the
+singing, the musical ladies were all fond of my company: For who [I am
+in a humour to be vain, I think!]--for who danced, who sung, who touched
+the string, whatever the instrument, with a better grace than thy
+friend?
+
+I have no notion of playing the hypocrite so egregiously, as to pretend
+to be blind to qualifications which every one sees and acknowledges.
+Such praise-begetting hypocrisy! Such affectedly disclaimed attributes!
+Such contemptible praise-traps!--But yet, shall my vanity extend only
+to personals, such as the gracefulness of dress, my debonnaire, and my
+assurance?--Self-taught, self-acquired, these!--For my parts, I value
+not myself upon them. Thou wilt say, I have no cause.--Perhaps not. But
+if I had any thing valuable as to intellectuals, those are not my own;
+and to be proud of what a man is answerable for the abuse of, and has
+no merit in the right use of, is to strut, like the jay, in borrowed
+plumage.
+
+But to return to my fair jilt. I could not bear, that a woman, who was
+the first that had bound me in silken fetters [they were not iron ones,
+like those I now wear] should prefer a coronet to me: and when the bird
+was flown, I set more value upon it, that when I had it safe in my cage,
+and could visit in when I pleased.
+
+But now am I indeed in love. I can think of nothing, of nobody, but
+the divine Clarissa Harlowe--Harlowe!--How that hated word sticks in my
+throat--But I shall give her for it the name of Love.*
+
+
+* Lovelace.
+
+
+ CLARISSA! O there's music in the name,
+ That, soft'ning me to infant tenderness,
+ Makes my heart spring like the first leaps of life!
+
+But couldst thou have believed that I, who think it possible for me
+to favour as much as I can be favoured; that I, who for this charming
+creature think of foregoing the life of honour for the life of shackles;
+could adopt these over-tender lines of Otway?
+
+I checked myself, and leaving the first three lines of the following of
+Dryden to the family of whiners, find the workings of the passion in my
+stormy soul better expressed by the three last:
+
+ Love various minds does variously inspire:
+ He stirs in gentle natures gentle fires;
+ Like that of incense on the alter laid.
+
+ But raging flames tempestuous souls invade:
+ A fire which ev'ry windy passion blows;
+ With pride it mounts, and with revenge it glows.
+
+And with REVENGE it shall glow!--For, dost thou think, that if it were
+not from the hope, that this stupid family are all combined to do my
+work for me, I would bear their insults?--Is it possible to imagine,
+that I would be braved as I am braved, threatened as I am threatened, by
+those who are afraid to see me; and by this brutal brother, too, to
+whom I gave a life; [a life, indeed, not worth my taking!] had I not
+a greater pride in knowing that by means of his very spy upon me, I am
+playing him off as I please; cooling or inflaming his violent passions
+as may best suit my purposes; permitting so much to be revealed of my
+life and actions, and intentions, as may give him such a confidence in
+his double-faced agent, as shall enable me to dance his employer upon my
+own wires?
+
+This it is that makes my pride mount above my resentment. By this
+engine, whose springs I am continually oiling, I play them all off.
+The busy old tarpaulin uncle I make but my ambassador to Queen Anabella
+Howe, to engage her (for example-sake to her princessly daughter) to
+join in their cause, and to assert an authority they are resolved, right
+or wrong, (or I could do nothing,) to maintain.
+
+And what my motive, dost thou ask? No less than this, That my beloved
+shall find no protection out of my family; for, if I know hers, fly she
+must, or have the man she hates. This, therefore, if I take my measures
+right, and my familiar fail me not, will secure her mine, in spite of
+them all; in spite of her own inflexible heart: mine, without condition;
+without reformation-promises; without the necessity of a siege of years,
+perhaps; and to be even then, after wearing the guise of merit-doubting
+hypocrisy, at an uncertainty, upon a probation unapproved of. Then shall
+I have all the rascals and rascalesses of the family come creeping to
+me: I prescribing to them; and bringing that sordidly imperious brother
+to kneel at the footstool of my throne.
+
+All my fear arises from the little hold I have in the heart of this
+charming frost-piece: such a constant glow upon her lovely features:
+eyes so sparkling: limbs so divinely turned: health so florid: youth so
+blooming: air so animated--to have an heart so impenetrable: and I, the
+hitherto successful Lovelace, the addresser--How can it be? Yet there
+are people, and I have talked with some of them, who remember that
+she was born. Her nurse Norton boasts of her maternal offices in her
+earliest infancy; and in her education gradatim. So there is full proof,
+that she came not from above all at once an angel! How then can she be
+so impenetrable?
+
+But here's her mistake; nor will she be cured of it--She takes the man
+she calls her father [her mother had been faultless, had she not been
+her father's wife]; she takes the men she calls her uncles; the fellow
+she calls her brother; and the poor contemptible she calls her sister;
+to be her father, to be her uncles, her brother, her sister; and that,
+as such, she owes to some of them reverence, to others respect, let them
+treat her ever so cruelly!--Sordid ties!--Mere cradle prejudices!--For
+had they not been imposed upon her by Nature, when she was in a perverse
+humour, or could she have chosen her relations, would any of these have
+been among them?
+
+How my heart rises at her preference of them to me, when she is
+convinced of their injustice to me! Convinced, that the alliance would
+do honour to them all--herself excepted; to whom every one owes honour;
+and from whom the most princely family might receive it. But how much
+more will my heart rise with indignation against her, if I find she
+hesitates but one moment (however persecuted) about preferring me to the
+man she avowedly hates! But she cannot surely be so mean as to purchase
+her peace with them at so dear a rate. She cannot give a sanction to
+projects formed in malice, and founded in a selfishness (and that at her
+own expense) which she has spirit enough to despise in others; and ought
+to disavow, that we may not think her a Harlowe.
+
+By this incoherent ramble thou wilt gather, that I am not likely to come
+up in haste; since I must endeavour first to obtain some assurance from
+the beloved of my soul, that I shall not be sacrificed to such a wretch
+as Solmes! Woe be to the fair one, if ever she be driven into my
+power (for I despair of a voluntary impulse in my favour) and I find a
+difficulty in obtaining this security.
+
+That her indifference to me is not owing to the superior liking she has
+for any other, is what rivets my chains. But take care, fair one; take
+care, O thou most exalted of female minds, and loveliest of persons, how
+thou debasest thyself by encouraging such a competition as thy sordid
+relations have set on foot in mere malice to me!--Thou wilt say I rave.
+And so I do:
+
+ Perdition catch my soul, but I do love her.
+
+Else, could I hear the perpetual revilings of her implacable
+family?--Else, could I basely creep about--not her proud father's
+house--but his paddock and garden walls?--Yet (a quarter of a mile
+distance between us) not hoping to behold the least glimpse of her
+shadow?--Else, should I think myself repaid, amply repaid, if the
+fourth, fifth, or sixth midnight stroll, through unfrequented paths, and
+over briery enclosures, affords me a few cold lines; the even expected
+purport only to let me know, that she values the most worthless person
+of her very worthless family, more than she values me; and that she
+would not write at all, but to induce me to bear insults, which unman
+me to bear?--My lodging in the intermediate way at a wretched alehouse;
+disguised like an inmate of it: accommodations equally vile, as those
+I met with in my Westphalian journey. 'Tis well, that the necessity for
+all this arise not from scorn and tyranny! but is first imposed upon
+herself!
+
+But was ever hero in romance (fighting with giants and dragons excepted)
+called upon to harder trials?--Fortune and family, and reversionary
+grandeur on my side! Such a wretched fellow my competitor!--Must I not
+be deplorably in love, that can go through these difficulties, encounter
+these contempts?--By my soul, I am half ashamed of myself: I, who am
+perjured too, by priority of obligation, if I am faithful to any woman
+in the world?
+
+And yet, why say I, I am half ashamed?--Is it not a glory to love her
+whom every one who sees her either loves, or reveres, or both? Dryden
+says,
+
+ The cause of love can never be assign'd:
+ 'Tis in no face;--but in the lover's mind.
+--And Cowley thus addresses beauty as a mere imaginary:
+
+ Beauty! thou wild fantastic ape,
+ Who dost in ev'ry country change thy shape:
+ Here black; there brown; here tawny; and there white!
+ Thou flatt'rer, who comply'st with ev'ry sight!
+ Who hast no certain what, nor where.
+
+But both these, had they been her contemporaries, and known her, would
+have confessed themselves mistaken: and, taking together person, mind,
+and behaviour, would have acknowledged the justice of the universal
+voice in her favour.
+
+ --Full many a lady
+ I've ey'd with best regard; and many a time
+ Th' harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
+ Brought my too-diligent ear.  For sev'ral virtues
+ Have I liked several women.  Never any
+ With so full a soul, but some defect in her
+ Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
+ And put it to the foil.  But SHE!--O SHE!
+ So perfect and so peerless is created,
+ Of ev'ry creature's best.
+
+ SHAKESP.
+
+Thou art curious to know, if I have not started a new game? If it
+be possible for so universal a lover to be confined so long to one
+object?--Thou knowest nothing of this charming creature, that thou canst
+put such questions to me; or thinkest thou knowest me better than
+thou dost. All that's excellent in her sex is this lady!--Until by
+MATRIMONIAL or EQUAL intimacies, I have found her less than angel, it is
+impossible to think of any other. Then there are so many stimulatives
+to such a spirit as mine in this affair, besides love: such a field of
+stratagem and contrivance, which thou knowest to be the delight of my
+heart. Then the rewarding end of all!--To carry off such a girl as this,
+in spite of all her watchful and implacable friends; and in spite of a
+prudence and reserve that I never met with in any of the sex;--what a
+triumph!--What a triumph over the whole sex!--And then such a revenge to
+gratify; which is only at present politically reined in, eventually to
+break forth with greater fury--Is it possible, thinkest thou, that there
+can be room for a thought that is not of her, and devoted to her?
+
+
+***
+
+
+By the devices I have this moment received, I have reason to think, that
+I shall have occasion for thee here. Hold thyself in readiness to come
+down upon the first summons.
+
+Let Belton, and Mowbray, and Tourville, likewise prepare themselves. I
+have a great mind to contrive a method to send James Harlowe to travel
+for improvement. Never was there a booby 'squire that more wanted it.
+Contrive it, did I say? I have already contrived it; could I but put
+it in execution without being suspected to have a hand in it. This I am
+resolved upon; if I have not his sister, I will have him.
+
+But be this as it may, there is a present likelihood of room for
+glorious mischief. A confederacy had been for some time formed against
+me; but the uncles and the nephew are now to be double-servanted
+[single-servanted they were before]; and those servants are to be
+double armed when they attend their masters abroad. This indicates their
+resolute enmity to me, and as resolute favour to Solmes.
+
+The reinforced orders for this hostile apparatus are owing it seems to a
+visit I made yesterday to their church.--A good place I thought to begin
+a reconciliation in; supposing the heads of the family to be christians,
+and that they meant something by their prayers. My hopes were to have
+an invitation (or, at least, to gain a pretence) to accompany home the
+gloomy sire; and so get an opportunity to see my goddess: for I believed
+they durst not but be civil to me, at least. But they were filled with
+terror it seems at my entrance; a terror they could not get over. I saw
+it indeed in their countenances; and that they all expected something
+extraordinary to follow.--And so it should have done, had I been more
+sure than I am of their daughter's favour. Yet not a hair of any of
+their stupid heads do I intend to hurt.
+
+You shall all have your directions in writing, if there be occasion. But
+after all, I dare say there will be no need but to shew your faces in my
+company.
+
+Such faces never could four men shew--Mowbray's so fierce and so
+fighting: Belton's so pert and so pimply: Tourville's so fair and
+so foppish: thine so rough and so resolute: and I your leader!--What
+hearts, although meditating hostility, must those be which we shall not
+appall?--Each man occasionally attended by a servant or two, long ago
+chosen for qualities resembling those of his master.
+
+Thus, Jack, as thou desirest, have I written.--Written upon something;
+upon nothing; upon REVENGE, which I love; upon LOVE, which I hate,
+heartily hate, because 'tis my master: and upon the devil knows what
+besides: for looking back, I am amazed at the length of it. Thou mayest
+read it: I would not for a king's ransom. But so as I do but write, thou
+sayest thou wilt be pleased.
+
+Be pleased then. I command thee to be pleased: if not for the writer's
+or written sake, for thy word's sake. And so in the royal style (for am
+I not likely to be thy king and thy emperor in the great affair before
+us?) I bid thee very heartily
+
+Farewell.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 14.
+
+
+I now send you copies of my letters to my uncles: with their answers. Be
+pleased to return the latter by the first deposit. I leave them for you
+to make remarks upon. I shall make none.
+
+
+TO JOHN HARLOWE, ESQ. SAT. MARCH 11.
+
+Allow me, my honoured second Papa, as in my happy days you taught me
+to call you, to implore your interest with my Papa, to engage him to
+dispense with a command, which, if insisted upon, will deprive me of my
+free-will, and make me miserable for my whole life.
+
+For my whole life! let me repeat: Is that a small point, my dear Uncle,
+to give up? Am not I to live with the man? Is any body else? Shall I not
+therefore be allowed to judge for myself, whether I can, or cannot, live
+happily with him?
+
+Should it be ever so unhappily, will it be prudence to complain or
+appeal? If it were, to whom could I appeal with effect against a
+husband? And would not the invincible and avowed dislike I have for him
+at setting out, seem to justify any ill usage from him, in that state,
+were I to be ever so observant of him? And if I were to be at all
+observant of him, it must be from fear, not love.
+
+Once more, let me repeat, That this is not a small point to give up:
+and that it is for life. Why, I pray you, good Sir, should I be made
+miserable for life? Why should I be deprived of all comfort, but that
+which the hope that it would be a very short one, would afford me?
+
+Marriage is a very solemn engagement, enough to make a young creature's
+heart ache, with the best prospects, when she thinks seriously of
+it!--To be given up to a strange man; to be engrafted into a strange
+family; to give up her very name, as a mark of her becoming his absolute
+and dependent property; to be obliged to prefer this strange man to
+father, mother--to every body:--and his humours to all her own--or to
+contend, perhaps, in breach of avowed duty, for every innocent
+instance of free-will. To go no where; to make acquaintance; to give up
+acquaintance; to renounce even the strictest friendships, perhaps;
+all at his pleasure, whether she thinks it reasonable to do so or not.
+Surely, Sir, a young creature ought not to be obliged to make all these
+sacrifices but for such a man as she can love. If she be, how sad must
+be the case! How miserable the life, if it can be called life!
+
+I wish I could obey you all. What a pleasure would it be to me, if I
+could!--Marry first, and love will come after, was said by one of my
+dearest friends! But this is a shocking assertion. A thousand thing may
+happen to make that state but barely tolerable, where it is entered into
+with mutual affections: What must it then be, where the husband can have
+no confidence in the love of his wife: but has reason rather to question
+it, from the preference he himself believes she would have given to
+somebody else, had she had her own option? What doubts, what jealousies,
+what want of tenderness, what unfavourable prepossessions, will there
+be, in a matrimony thus circumstanced! How will every look, every
+action, even the most innocent, be liable to misconstruction!--While,
+on the other hand, an indifference, a carelessness to oblige, may take
+place; and fear only can constrain even an appearance of what ought to
+be the effect of undisguised love!
+
+Think seriously of these things, dear, good Sir, and represent them to
+my father in that strong light which the subject will bear; but in which
+my sex, and my tender years and inexperience, will not permit me to
+paint it; and use your powerful interest, that your poor niece may not
+be consigned to a misery so durable.
+
+I offered to engage not to marry at all, if that condition may be
+accepted. What a disgrace is it to me to be thus sequestered from
+company, thus banished my papa's and mamma's presence; thus slighted and
+deserted by you, Sir, and my other kind uncle! And to be hindered from
+attending at that public worship, which, were I out of the way of my
+duty, would be most likely to reduce me into the right path again!--Is
+this the way, Sir; can this be thought to be the way to be taken with
+a free and open spirit? May not this strange method rather harden than
+convince? I cannot bear to live in disgrace thus. The very servants so
+lately permitted to be under my own direction, hardly daring to speak to
+me; my own servant discarded with high marks of undeserved suspicion and
+displeasure, and my sister's maid set over me.
+
+The matter may be too far pushed.--Indeed it may.--And then, perhaps,
+every one will be sorry for their parts in it.
+
+May I be permitted to mention an expedient?--'If I am to be
+watched, banished, and confined; suppose, Sir, it were to be at your
+house?'--Then the neighbouring gentry will the less wonder, that the
+person of whom they used to think so favourably, appear not at church
+here; and that she received not their visits.
+
+I hope there can be no objection to this. You used to love to have
+me with you, Sir, when all went happily with me: And will you not now
+permit me, in my troubles, the favour of your house, till all this
+displeasure is overblown?--Upon my word, Sir, I will not stir out of
+doors, if you require the contrary of me: nor will I see any body, but
+whom you will allow me to see; provided Mr. Solmes be not brought to
+persecute me there.
+
+Procure, then, this favour for me; if you cannot procure the still
+greater, that of a happy reconciliation (which nevertheless I presume to
+hope for, if you will be so good as to plead for me); and you will then
+add to those favours and to that indulgence, which have bound me, and
+will for ever bind me to be
+
+Your dutiful and obliged niece, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+THE ANSWER
+
+
+SUNDAY NIGHT.
+
+MY DEAR NIECE,
+
+It grieves me to be forced to deny you any thing you ask. Yet it must be
+so; for unless you can bring your mind to oblige us in this one point,
+in which our promises and honour were engaged before we believed there
+could be so sturdy an opposition, you must never expect to be what you
+have been to us all.
+
+In short, Niece, we are in an embattled phalanx. Your reading makes you
+a stranger to nothing but what you should be most acquainted with. So
+you will see by that expression, that we are not to be pierced by your
+persuasions, and invincible persistence. We have agreed all to be
+moved, or none; and not to comply without one another. So you know your
+destiny; and have nothing to do but to yield to it.
+
+Let me tell you, the virtue of obedience lies not in obliging when you
+can be obliged again. But give up an inclination, and there is some
+merit in that.
+
+As to your expedient; you shall not come to my house, Miss Clary; though
+this is a prayer I little thought I ever should have denied you: for
+were you to keep your word as to seeing nobody but whom we please, yet
+can you write to somebody else, and receive letters from him. This we
+too well know you can, and have done--more is the shame and the pity!
+
+You offer to live single, Miss--we wished you married: but because you
+may not have the man your heart is set upon, why, truly, you will have
+nobody we shall recommend: and as we know, that somehow or other you
+correspond with him, or at least did as long as you could; and as he
+defies us all, and would not dare to do so, if he were not sure of you
+in spite of us all, (which is not a little vexatious to us, you must
+think,) we are resolved to frustrate him, and triumph over him, rather
+than that he should triumph over us: that's one word for all. So expect
+not any advocateship from me: I will not plead for you; and that's
+enough. From
+
+Your displeased uncle, JOHN HARLOWE.
+
+P.S. For the rest I refer to my brother Antony.
+
+
+***
+
+
+TO ANTONY HARLOWE, ESQ. SATURDAY, MARCH 11.
+
+HONOURED SIR,
+
+As you have thought fit to favour Mr. Solmes with your particular
+recommendation, and was very earnest in his behalf, ranking him (as
+you told me, upon introducing him to me) among your select friends; and
+expecting my regards to him accordingly; I beg your patience, while
+I offer a few things, out of many that I could offer, to your serious
+consideration, on occasion of his address to me, if I am to use that
+word.
+
+I am charged with prepossession in another person's favour. You will be
+pleased, Sir, to remember, that till my brother returned from Scotland,
+that other person was not absolutely discouraged, nor was I forbid to
+receive his visits. I believe it will not be pretended, that in birth,
+education, or personal endowments, a comparison can be made between the
+two. And only let me ask you, Sir, if the one would have been thought of
+for me, had he not made such offers, as, upon my word, I think, I ought
+not in justice to accept of, nor he to propose: offers, which if he had
+not made, I dare say, my papa would not have required them of him.
+
+But the one, it seems, has many faults:--Is the other faultless?--The
+principal thing objected to Mr. Lovelace (and a very inexcusable one) is
+that he is immoral in his loves--Is not the other in his hatreds?--Nay,
+as I may say, in his loves too (the object only differing) if the love
+of money be the root of all evil.
+
+But, Sir, if I am prepossessed, what has Mr. Solmes to hope for?--Why
+should he persevere? What must I think of the man who would wish me to
+be his wife against my inclination?--And is it not a very harsh thing
+for my friends to desire to see me married to one I cannot love, when
+they will not be persuaded but that there is one whom I do love?
+
+Treated as I am, now is the time for me to speak out or never.--Let
+me review what it is Mr. Solmes depends upon on this occasion. Does he
+believe, that the disgrace which I supper on his account, will give
+him a merit with me? Does he think to win my esteem, through my uncles'
+sternness to me; by my brother's contemptuous usage; by my sister's
+unkindness; by being denied to visit, or be visited; and to correspond
+with my chosen friend, although a person of unexceptionable honour and
+prudence, and of my own sex; my servant to be torn from me, and another
+servant set over me; to be confined, like a prisoner, to narrow and
+disgraceful limits, in order avowedly to mortify me, and to break my
+spirit; to be turned out of that family-management which I loved, and
+had the greater pleasure in it, because it was an ease, as I thought, to
+my mamma, and what my sister chose not; and yet, though time hangs heavy
+upon my hands, to be so put out of my course, that I have as little
+inclination as liberty to pursue any of my choice delights?--Are these
+steps necessary to reduce me to a level so low, as to make me a fit wife
+for this man?--Yet these are all he can have to trust to. And if
+his reliance is on these measures, I would have him to know, that
+he mistakes meekness and gentleness of disposition for servility and
+baseness of heart.
+
+I beseech you, Sir, to let the natural turn and bent of his mind and my
+mind be considered: What are his qualities, by which he would hope to
+win my esteem?--Dear, dear Sir, if I am to be compelled, let it be in
+favour of a man that can read and write--that can teach me something:
+For what a husband must that man make, who can do nothing but command;
+and needs himself the instruction he should be qualified to give?
+
+I may be conceited, Sir; I may be vain of my little reading; of my
+writing; as of late I have more than once been told I am. But, Sir, the
+more unequal the proposed match, if so: the better opinion I have of
+myself, the worse I must have of him; and the more unfit are we for each
+other.
+
+Indeed, Sir, I must say, I thought my friends had put a higher value
+upon me. My brother pretended once, that it was owing to such value,
+that Mr. Lovelace's address was prohibited.--Can this be; and such a man
+as Mr. Solmes be intended for me?
+
+As to his proposed settlements, I hope I shall not incur your great
+displeasure, if I say, what all who know me have reason to think (and
+some have upbraided me for), that I despise those motives. Dear, dear
+Sir, what are settlements to one who has as much of her own as she
+wishes for?--Who has more in her own power, as a single person, than
+it is probable she would be permitted to have at her disposal, as a
+wife?--Whose expenses and ambition are moderate; and who, if she had
+superfluities, would rather dispense them to the necessitous, than lay
+them by her useless? If then such narrow motives have so little weight
+with me for my own benefit, shall the remote and uncertain view of
+family-aggrandizements, and that in the person of my brother and his
+descendents, be thought sufficient to influence me?
+
+Has the behaviour of that brother to me of late, or his consideration
+for the family (which had so little weight with him, that he could
+choose to hazard a life so justly precious as an only son's, rather than
+not ratify passions which he is above attempting to subdue, and, give me
+leave to say, has been too much indulged in, either with regard to his
+own good, or the peace of any body related to him;) Has his behaviour, I
+say, deserved of me in particular, that I should make a sacrifice of my
+temporal (and, who knows? of my eternal) happiness, to promote a plan
+formed upon chimerical, at least upon unlikely, contingencies; as I will
+undertake to demonstrate, if I may be permitted to examine it?
+
+I am afraid you will condemn my warmth: But does not the occasion
+require it? To the want of a greater degree of earnestness in my
+opposition, it seems, it is owing, that such advances have been made,
+as have been made. Then, dear Sir, allow something, I beseech you, for a
+spirit raised and embittered by disgraces, which (knowing my own heart)
+I am confident to say, are unmerited.
+
+But why have I said so much, in answer to the supposed charge of
+prepossession, when I have declared to my mamma, as now, Sir, I do
+to you, that if it be not insisted upon that I shall marry any other
+person, particularly this Mr. Solmes, I will enter into any engagements
+never to have the other, nor any man else, without their consents; that
+is to say, without the consents of my father and my mother, and of you
+my uncle, and my elder uncle, and my cousin Morden, as he is one of the
+trustees for my grandfather's bounty to me?--As to my brother indeed, I
+cannot say, that his treatment of me has been of late so brotherly,
+as to entitle him to more than civility from me: and for this, give me
+leave to add, he would be very much my debtor.
+
+If I have not been explicit enough in declaring my dislike to Mr. Solmes
+(that the prepossession which is charged upon me may not be supposed to
+influence me against him) I do absolutely declare, That were there no
+such man as Mr. Lovelace in the world, I would not have Mr. Solmes.
+It is necessary, in some one of my letters to my dear friends, that I
+should write so clearly as to put this matter out of all doubt: and to
+whom can I better address myself with an explicitness that can admit
+of no mistake, than to that uncle who professes the highest regard for
+plain-dealing and sincerity?
+
+Let me, for these reasons, be still more particular in some of my
+exceptions to him.
+
+Mr. Solmes appears to me (to all the world, indeed) to have a very
+narrow mind, and no great capacity: he is coarse and indelicate; as
+rough in his manners as in his person: he is not only narrow, but
+covetous: being possessed of great wealth, he enjoys it not; nor has the
+spirit to communicate to a distress of any kind. Does not his own sister
+live unhappily, for want of a little of his superfluities? And suffers
+not he his aged uncle, the brother of his own mother, to owe to
+the generosity of strangers the poor subsistence he picks up from
+half-a-dozen families?--You know, Sir, my open, free, communicative
+temper: how unhappy must I be, circumscribed in his narrow, selfish
+circle! out of which being with-held by this diabolical parsimony, he
+dare no more stir, than a conjurer out of his; nor would let me.
+
+Such a man, as this, love!--Yes, perhaps he may, my grandfather's
+estate; which he has told several persons (and could not resist hinting
+the same thing tome, with that sort of pleasure which a low mind takes,
+when it intimates its own interest as a sufficient motive for it to
+expect another's favour) lies so extremely convenient for him, that it
+would double the value of a considerable part of his own. That estate,
+and an alliance which would do credit to his obscurity and narrowness,
+they make him think he can love, and induce him to believe he does: but
+at most, he is but a second-place love. Riches were, are, and always
+will be, his predominant passion. His were left him by a miser, on this
+very account: and I must be obliged to forego all the choice delights
+of my life, and be as mean as he, or else be quite unhappy. Pardon, Sir,
+this severity of expression--one is apt to say more than one would of
+a person one dislikes, when more is said in his favour than he can
+possibly deserve; and when he is urged to my acceptance with so much
+vehemence, that there is no choice left me.
+
+Whether these things be perfectly so, or not, while I think they are,
+it is impossible I should ever look upon Mr. Solmes in the light he is
+offered to me. Nay, were he to be proved ten times better than I have
+represented him, and sincerely think him; yet would he be still ten
+times more disagreeable to me than any other man I know in the world.
+Let me therefore beseech you, Sir, to become an advocate for your niece,
+that she may not be made a victim to a man so highly disgustful to her.
+
+You and my other uncle can do a great deal for me, if you please, with
+my papa. Be persuaded, Sir, that I am not governed by obstinacy in this
+case; but by aversion; an aversion I cannot overcome: for, if I have but
+endeavoured to reason with myself, (out of regard to the duty I owe
+to my father's will,) my heart has recoiled, and I have been averse to
+myself, for offering but to argue with myself, in behalf of a man who,
+in the light he appears to me, has no one merit; and who, knowing this
+aversion, could not persevere as he does, if he had the spirit of a man.
+
+If, Sir, you can think of the contents of this letter reasonable, I
+beseech you to support them with your interest. If not--I shall be most
+unhappy!--Nevertheless, it is but just in me so to write, as that Mr.
+Solmes may know what he has to trust to.
+
+Forgive, dear Sir, this tedious letter; and suffer it to have weight
+with you; and you will for ever oblige
+
+Your dutiful and affectionate niece,
+
+CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+MR. ANTONY HARLOWE, TO MISS CL. HARLOWE
+
+NIECE CLARY,
+
+You had better not write to us, or to any of us. To me, particularly,
+you had better never to have set pen to paper, on the subject whereon
+you have written. He that is first in his own cause, saith the wise man,
+seemeth just: but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him. And so, in
+this respect, I will be your neighbour: for I will search your heart to
+the bottom; that is to say, if your letter be written from your heart.
+Yet do I know what a task I have undertaken, because of the knack you
+are noted for at writing. But in defence of a father's authority, in
+behalf of the good, and honour, and prosperity of the family one comes
+of, what a hard thing it would be, if one could not beat down all the
+arguments a rebel child (how loth I am to write down that word of Miss
+Clary Harlowe!) can bring, in behalf of her obstinacy!
+
+In the first place, don't you declare (and that contrary to your
+declarations to your mother, remember that, girl!) that you prefer the
+man we all hate, and who hates us as bad!--Then what a character have
+you given of a worthy man! I wonder you dare write so freely of one we
+all respect--but possibly it may be for that very reason.
+
+How you begin your letter!--Because I value Mr. Solmes as my friend, you
+treat him the worse--That's the plain dunstable of the matter, Miss!--I
+am not such a fool but I can see that.--And so a noted whoremonger is
+to be chosen before a man who is a money-lover!--Let me tell you, Niece,
+this little becomes so nice a one as you have been always reckoned. Who,
+think you, does more injustice, a prodigal man or a saving man?--The one
+saves his own money; the other spends other people's. But your favourite
+is a sinner in grain, and upon record.
+
+The devil's in your sex! God forgive me for saying so--the nicest of
+them will prefer a vile rake and wh---- I suppose I must not repeat the
+word:--the word will offend, when the vicious denominated by that word
+will be chosen!--I had not been a bachelor to this time, if I had not
+seen such a mass of contradictions in you all.--Such gnat-strainers and
+camel-swallowers, as venerable Holy Writ has it.
+
+What names will perverseness call things by!--A prudent man, who intends
+to be just to every body, is a covetous man!--While a vile, profligate
+rake is christened with the appellation of a gallant man; and a polite
+man, I'll warrant you!
+
+It is my firm opinion, Lovelace would not have so much regard for you
+as he professes, but for two reasons. And what are these?--Why, out of
+spite to all of us--one of them. The other, because of your independent
+fortune. I wish your good grandfather had not left what he did so much
+in your own power, as I may say. But little did he imagine his beloved
+grand-daughter would have turned upon all her friends as she has done!
+
+What has Mr. Solmes to hope for, if you are prepossessed! Hey-day!
+Is this you, cousin Clary!--Has he then nothing to hope for from your
+father's, and mother's, and our recommendations?--No, nothing at all, it
+seems!--O brave!--I should think that this, with a dutiful child, as we
+took you to be, was enough. Depending on this your duty, we proceeded:
+and now there is no help for it: for we will not be balked: neither
+shall our friend Mr. Solmes, I can tell you that.
+
+If your estate is convenient for him, what then? Does that (pert cousin)
+make it out that he does not love you? He had need to expect some good
+with you, that has so little good to hope for from you; mind that. But
+pray, is not this estate our estate, as we may say? Have we not all an
+interest in it, and a prior right, if right were to have taken place?
+And was it not more than a good old man's dotage, God rest his soul!
+that gave it you before us all?--Well then, ought we not to have a
+choice who shall have it in marriage with you? and would you have the
+conscience to wish us to let a vile fellow, who hates us all, run away
+with it?--You bid me weigh what you write: do you weigh this, Girl: and
+it will appear we have more to say for ourselves than you was aware of.
+
+As to your hard treatment, as you call it, thank yourself for that. It
+may be over when you will: so I reckon nothing upon that. You was not
+banished and confined till all entreaty and fair speeches were tried
+with you: mind that. And Mr. Solmes can't help your obstinacy: let that
+be observed too.
+
+As to being visited, and visiting; you never was fond of either: so
+that's a grievance put into the scale to make weight.--As to disgrace,
+that's as bad to us as to you: so fine a young creature! So much as we
+used to brag of you too!--And besides, this is all in your power, as the
+rest.
+
+But your heart recoils, when you would persuade yourself to obey your
+parent--Finely described, is it not!--Too truly described, I own, as you
+go on. I know that you may love him if you will. I had a good mind to
+bid you hate him; then, perhaps, you would like him the better: for I
+have always found a most horrid romantic perverseness in your sex.--To
+do and to love what you should not, is meat, drink, and vesture, to you
+all.
+
+I am absolutely of your brother's mind, That reading and writing, though
+not too much for the wits of you young girls, are too much for your
+judgments.--You say, you may be conceited, Cousin; you may be vain!--And
+so you are, to despise this gentleman as you do. He can read and write
+as well as most gentlemen, I can tell you that. Who told you Mr. Solmes
+cannot read and write? But you must have a husband who can learn
+you something!--I wish you knew but your duty as well as you do your
+talents--that, Niece, you have of late days to learn; and Mr. Solmes
+will therefore find something to instruct you in. I will not shew him
+this letter of yours, though you seem to desire it, lest it should
+provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his'n.
+
+But now I think of it, suppose you are the reader at your pen than
+he--You will make the more useful wife to him; won't you? For who so
+good an economist as you?--And you may keep all of his accounts,
+and save yourselves a steward.--And, let me tell you, this is a fine
+advantage in a family: for those stewards are often sad dogs, and creep
+into a man's estate before he knows where he is; and not seldom is he
+forced to pay them interest for his own money.
+
+I know not why a good wife should be above these things. It is better
+than lying a-bed half the day, and junketing and card-playing all the
+night, and making yourselves wholly useless to every good purpose in
+your own families, as is now the fashion among ye. The duce take you all
+that do so, say I!--Only that, thank my stars, I am a bachelor.
+
+Then this is a province you are admirably versed in: you grieve that
+it is taken from you here, you know. So here, Miss, with Mr. Solmes you
+will have something to keep account of, for the sake of you and your
+children: with the other, perhaps you will have an account to keep,
+too--but an account of what will go over the left shoulder; only of what
+he squanders, what he borrows, and what he owes, and never will pay.
+Come, come, Cousin, you know nothing of the world; a man's a man; and
+you may have many partners in a handsome man, and costly ones too, who
+may lavish away all you save. Mr. Solmes therefore for my money, and I
+hope for yours.
+
+But Mr. Solmes is a coarse man. He is not delicate enough for your
+niceness; because I suppose he dresses not like a fop and a coxcomb, and
+because he lays not himself out in complimental nonsense, the poison of
+female minds. He is a man of sense, that I can tell you. No man
+talks more to the purpose to us: but you fly him so, that he has no
+opportunity given him, to express it to you: and a man who loves, if he
+have ever so much sense, looks a fool; especially when he is despised,
+and treated as you treated him the last time he was in your company.
+
+As to his sister; she threw herself away (as you want to do) against his
+full warning: for he told her what she had to trust to, if she married
+where she did marry. And he was as good as his word; and so an honest
+man ought: offences against warning ought to be smarted for. Take care
+this be not your case: mind that.
+
+His uncle deserves no favour from him; for he would have circumvented
+Mr. Solmes, and got Sir Oliver to leave to himself the estate he had
+always designed for him his nephew, and brought him up in the hope of
+it. Too ready forgiveness does but encourage offences: that's your good
+father's maxim: and there would not be so many headstrong daughters as
+there are, if this maxim were kept in mind.--Punishments are of service
+to offenders; rewards should be only to the meriting: and I think the
+former are to be dealt out rigourously, in willful cases.
+
+As to his love; he shews it but too much for your deservings, as they
+have been of late; let me tell you that: and this is his misfortune; and
+may in time perhaps be yours.
+
+As to his parsimony, which you wickedly call diabolical, [a very free
+word in your mouth, let me tell ye], little reason have you of all
+people for this, on whom he proposes, of his own accord, to settle all
+he has in the world: a proof, let him love riches as he will, that he
+loves you better. But that you may be without excuse on this score,
+we will tie him up to your own terms, and oblige him by the
+marriage-articles to allow you a very handsome quarterly sum to do what
+you please with. And this has been told you before; and I have said it
+to Mrs. Howe (that good and worthy lady) before her proud daughter, that
+you might hear of it again.
+
+To contradict the charge of prepossession to Lovelace, you offer never
+to have him without our consents: and what is this saying, but that you
+will hope on for our consents, and to wheedle and tire us out? Then he
+will always be in expectation while you are single: and we are to live
+on at this rate (are we?) vexed by you, and continually watchful about
+you; and as continually exposed to his insolence and threats. Remember
+last Sunday, Girl!--What might have happened, had your brother and he
+met?--Moreover, you cannot do with such a spirit as his, as you can with
+worthy Mr. Solmes: the one you make tremble; the other will make
+you quake: mind that--and you will not be able to help yourself. And
+remember, that if there should be any misunderstanding between one of
+them and you, we should all interpose; and with effect, no doubt: but
+with the other, it would be self-do, self-have; and who would either
+care or dare to put in a word for you? Nor let the supposition of
+matrimonial differences frighten you: honey-moon lasts not now-a-days
+above a fortnight; and Dunmow flitch, as I have been informed, was never
+claimed; though some say once it was. Marriage is a queer state, Child,
+whether paired by the parties or by their friends. Out of three brothers
+of us, you know, there was but one had courage to marry. And why was it,
+do you think? We were wise by other people's experience.
+
+Don't despise money so much: you may come to know the value of it: that
+is a piece of instruction that you are to learn; and which, according to
+your own notions, Mr. Solmes will be able to teach you.
+
+I do indeed condemn your warmth. I will not allow for disgraces you
+bring upon yourself. If I thought them unmerited, I would be your
+advocate. But it was always my notion, that children should not dispute
+their parents' authority. When your grandfather left his estate to you,
+though his three sons, and a grandson, and your elder sister, were in
+being, we all acquiesced: and why? Because it was our father's doing. Do
+you imitate that example: if you will not, those who set it you have the
+more reason to hold you inexcusable: mind that, Cousin.
+
+You mention your brother too scornfully: and, in your letter to him, are
+very disrespectful; and so indeed you are to your sister, in the letter
+you wrote to her. Your brother, Madam, is your brother; and third older
+than yourself, and a man: and pray be so good as not to forget what is
+due to a brother, who (next to us three brothers) is the head of the
+family, and on whom the name depends--as upon your dutiful compliance
+laid down for the honour of the family you are come of. And pray now let
+me ask you, If the honour of that will not be an honour to you?--If you
+don't think so, the more unworthy you. You shall see the plan, if you
+promise not to be prejudiced against it right or wrong. If you are not
+besotted to that man, I am sure you will like it. If you are, were Mr.
+Solmes an angel, it would signify nothing: for the devil is love, and
+love is the devil, when it gets into any of your heads. Many examples
+have I seen of that.
+
+If there were no such man as Lovelace in the world, you would not have
+Mr. Solmes.--You would not, Miss!--Very pretty, truly!--We see how your
+spirit is embittered indeed.--Wonder not, since it is come to your will
+not's, that those who have authority over you, say, You shall have the
+other. And I am one: mind that. And if it behoves YOU to speak out,
+Miss, it behoves US not to speak in. What's sauce for the goose is sauce
+for the gander: take that in your thought too.
+
+I humbly apprehend, that Mr. Solmes has the spirit of a man, and a
+gentleman. I would admonish you therefore not to provoke it. He pities
+you as much as he loves you. He says, he will convince you of his love
+by deeds, since he is not permitted by you to express it by words. And
+all his dependence is upon your generosity hereafter. We hope he may
+depend upon that: we encourage him to think he may. And this heartens
+him up. So that you may lay his constancy at your parents' and your
+uncles' doors; and this will be another mark of your duty, you know.
+
+You must be sensible, that you reflect upon your parents, and all of
+us, when you tell me you cannot in justice accept of the settlements
+proposed to you. This reflection we should have wondered at from you
+once; but now we don't.
+
+There are many other very censurable passages in this free letter of
+yours; but we must place them to the account of your embittered spirit.
+I am glad you mentioned that word, because we should have been at a
+loss what to have called it.--I should much rather nevertheless have had
+reason to give it a better name.
+
+I love you dearly still, Miss. I think you, though my niece, one of the
+finest young gentlewomen I ever saw. But, upon my conscience, I think
+you ought to obey your parents, and oblige me and my brother John:
+for you know very well, that we have nothing but your good at heart:
+consistently indeed with the good and honour of all of us. What must we
+think of any one of it, who would not promote the good of the whole?
+and who would set one part of it against another?--Which God forbid, say
+I!--You see I am for the good of all. What shall I get by it, let things
+go as they will? Do I want any thing of any body for my own sake?--Does
+my brother John?--Well, then, Cousin Clary, what would you be at, as I
+may say?
+
+O but you can't love Mr. Solmes!--But, I say, you know not what you
+can do. You encourage yourself in your dislike. You permit your heart
+(little did I think it was such a froward one) to recoil. Take it to
+task, Niece; drive it on as fast as it recoils, [we do so in all our
+sea-fights, and land-fights too, by our sailors and soldiers, or we
+should not conquer]; and we are all sure you will overcome it. And why?
+Because you ought. So we think, whatever you think: and whose thoughts
+are to be preferred? You may be wittier than we; but, if you were wiser,
+we have lived some of us, let me tell you, to very little purpose,
+thirty or forty years longer than you.
+
+I have written as long a letter as yours. I may not write in so lively,
+or so polite a style as my Niece: but I think I have all the argument
+on my side: and you will vastly oblige me, if you will shew me, by your
+compliance with all our desires, that you think so too. If you do not,
+you must not expect an advocate, or even a friend, in me, dearly as I
+love you. For then I shall be sorry to be called
+
+Your uncle, ANT. HARLOWE.
+
+TUESDAY, TWO IN THE MORNING. POSTSCRIPT.
+
+You must send me no more letters: but a compliable one you may send.
+But I need not have forbid you; for I am sure this, by fair argument,
+is unanswerable--I know it is. I have written day and night, I may say,
+ever since Sunday morning, only church-time, or the like of that: but
+this is the last, I can tell you, from
+
+ANT. H.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE THURSDAY, MARCH 16.
+
+
+Having met with such bad success in my application to my relations, I
+have taken a step that will surprise you. It is no other than writing
+a letter to Mr. Solmes himself. I sent it, and have his answer. He had
+certainly help in it. For I have seen a letter of his, and indifferently
+worded, as poorly spelt. Yet the superscription is of his dictating,
+I dare say, for he is a formal wretch. With these, I shall enclose one
+from my brother to me, on occasion of mine to Mr. Solmes. I did think
+that it was possible to discourage the man from proceeding; and if I
+could have done that, it would have answered all my wishes. It was worth
+the trial. But you'll see nothing will do. My brother has taken his
+measures too securely.
+
+
+TO ROGER SOLMES, ESQ. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15.
+
+SIR,
+
+You will wonder to receive a letter from me; and more still at the
+uncommon subject of it. But the necessity of the case will justify me,
+at least in my own apprehension; and I shall therefore make no other
+apology for it.
+
+When you first came acquainted with our family, you found the writer of
+this one of the happiest creatures in the world; beloved by the best
+and most indulgent of parents; and rejoicing in the kind favour of two
+affectionate uncles, and in the esteem of every one.
+
+But how is this scene now changed!--You was pleased to cast a favourable
+eye upon me. You addressed yourself to my friends: your proposals were
+approved of by them--approved of without consulting me; as if my choice
+and happiness were of the least signification. Those who had a right to
+all reasonable obedience from me, insisted upon it without reserve.
+I had not the felicity to think as they did; almost the first time my
+sentiments differed from theirs. I besought them to indulge me in a
+point so important to my future happiness: but, alas, in vain! And then
+(for I thought it was but honest) I told you my mind; and even that
+my affections were engaged. But, to my mortification and surprise, you
+persisted, and still persist.
+
+The consequence of all is too grievous for me to repeat: you, who have
+such free access to the rest of the family, know it too well--too well
+you know it, either for the credit of your own generosity, or for my
+reputation. I am used, on your account, as I never before was used, and
+never before was thought to deserve to be used; and this was the hard,
+the impossible, condition of their returning favour, that I must prefer
+a man to all others, that of all others I cannot prefer.
+
+Thus distressed, and made unhappy, and all to your sake, and through
+your cruel perseverance, I write, Sir, to demand of you the peace of
+mind you have robbed me of: to demand of you the love of so many dear
+friends, of which you have deprived me; and, if you have the generosity
+that should distinguish a man, and a gentleman, to adjure you not to
+continue an address that has been attended with such cruel effects to
+the creature you profess to esteem.
+
+If you really value me, as my friends would make me believe, and as you
+have declared you do, must it not be a mean and selfish value? A value
+that can have no merit with the unhappy object of it, because it is
+attended with effects so grievous to her? It must be for your own sake
+only, not for mine. And even in this point you must be mistaken: For,
+would a prudent man wish to marry one who has not a heart to give? Who
+cannot esteem him? Who therefore must prove a bad wife!--And how cruel
+would it be to make a poor creature a bad wife, whose pride it would be
+to make a good one!
+
+If I am capable of judging, our tempers and inclinations are vastly
+different. Any other of my sex will make you happier than I can. The
+treatment I meet with, and the obstinacy, as it is called, with which I
+support myself under it, ought to convince you of this; were I not able
+to give so good a reason for this my supposed perverseness, as that I
+cannot consent to marry a man whom I cannot value.
+
+But if, Sir, you have not so much generosity in your value for me, as
+to desist for my own sake, let me conjure you, by the regard due to
+yourself, and to your own future happiness, to discontinue your suit,
+and place your affections on a worthier object: for why should you make
+me miserable, and yourself not happy? By this means you will do all that
+is now in your power to restore to me the affection of my friends; and,
+if that can be, it will leave me in as happy a state as you found me
+in. You need only to say, that you see there are no HOPES, as you will
+perhaps complaisantly call it, of succeeding with me [and indeed, Sir,
+there cannot be a greater truth]; and that you will therefore no more
+think of me, but turn your thoughts another way.
+
+Your compliance with this request will lay me under the highest
+obligation to your generosity, and make me ever
+
+Your well-wisher, and humble servant, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE These most humbly present.
+
+DEAREST MISS,
+
+Your letter has had a very contrary effect upon me, to what you seem to
+have expected from it. It has doubly convinced me of the excellency of
+your mind, and of the honour of your disposition. Call it selfish, or
+what you please, I must persist in my suit; and happy shall I be, if by
+patience and perseverance, and a steady and unalterable devoir, I may at
+last overcome the difficulty laid in my way.
+
+As your good parents, your uncles, and other friends, are absolutely
+determined you shall never have Mr. Lovelace, if they can help it; and
+as I presume no other person is in the way, I will contentedly wait the
+issue of this matter. And forgive me, dearest Miss, but a person should
+sooner persuade me to give up to him my estate, as an instance of my
+generosity, because he could not be happy without it, than I would a
+much more valuable treasure, to promote the felicity of another, and
+make his way easier to circumvent myself.
+
+Pardon me, dear Miss; but I must persevere, though I am sorry you suffer
+on my account, as you are pleased to think; for I never before saw the
+woman I could love: and while there is any hope, and that you remain
+undisposed of to some happier man, I must and will be
+
+Your faithful and obsequious admirer, ROGER SOLMES.
+
+MARCH 16.
+
+
+***
+
+
+MR. JAMES HARLOWE, TO MISS CL. HARLOWE MARCH 16.
+
+What a fine whim you took into your head, to write a letter to Mr.
+Solmes, to persuade him to give up his pretensions to you!--Of all the
+pretty romantic flights you have delighted in, this was certainly one
+of the most extraordinary. But to say nothing of what fires us all with
+indignation against you (your owning your prepossession in a villain's
+favour, and your impertinence to me, and your sister, and your uncles;
+one of which has given it you home, child), how can you lay at Mr.
+Solmes's door the usage you so bitterly complain of?--You know, little
+fool as you are, that it is your fondness for Lovelace that has brought
+upon you all these things; and which would have happened, whether Mr.
+Solmes had honoured you with his addresses or not.
+
+As you must needs know this to be true, consider, pretty witty Miss, if
+your fond, love-sick heart can let you consider, what a fine figure all
+your expostulations with us, and charges upon Mr. Solmes, make!--With
+what propriety do you demand of him to restore to you your former
+happiness (as you call it, and merely call it; for if you thought our
+favour so, you would restore it to yourself), since it is yet in your
+own power to do so? Therefore, Miss Pert, none of your pathetics, except
+in the right place. Depend upon it, whether you have Mr. Solmes, or not,
+you shall never have your heart's delight, the vile rake Lovelace, if
+our parents, if our uncles, if I, can hinder it. No! you fallen angel,
+you shall not give your father and mother such a son, nor me such a
+brother, in giving yourself that profligate wretch for a husband. And so
+set your heart at rest, and lay aside all thoughts of him, if ever you
+expect forgiveness, reconciliation, or a kind opinion, from any of your
+family; but especially from him, who, at present, styles himself
+
+Your brother, JAMES HARLOWE.
+
+P.S. I know your knack at letter-writing. If you send me an answer
+for this, I will return it unopened; for I will not argue with your
+perverseness in so plain a case--Only once for all, I was willing to put
+you right as to Mr. Solmes; whom I think to blame to trouble his head
+about you.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV
+
+MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ. FRIDAY, MARCH 17.
+
+
+I receive, with great pleasure, the early and cheerful assurances of
+your loyalty and love. And let our principal and most trusty friends
+named in my last know that I do.
+
+I would have thee, Jack, come down, as soon as thou canst. I believe I
+shall not want the others so soon. Yet they may come down to Lord M.'s.
+I will be there, if not to receive them, to satisfy my lord, that there
+is no new mischief in hand, which will require his second intervention.
+
+For thyself, thou must be constantly with me: not for my security: the
+family dare do nothing but bully: they bark only at a distance: but
+for my entertainment: that thou mayest, from the Latin and the English
+classics, keep my lovesick soul from drooping.
+
+Thou hadst best come to me here, in thy old corporal's coat: thy servant
+out of livery; and to be upon a familiar footing with me, as a distant
+relation, to be provided for by thy interest above--I mean not in
+Heaven, thou mayest be sure. Thou wilt find me at a little alehouse,
+they call it an inn; the White Hart, most terribly wounded, (but by
+the weather only,) the sign: in a sorry village, within five miles from
+Harlowe-place. Every body knows Harlowe-place, for, like Versailles, it
+is sprung up from a dunghill, within every elderly person's remembrance.
+Every poor body, particularly, knows it: but that only for a few years
+past, since a certain angel has appeared there among the sons and
+daughters of men.
+
+The people here at the Hart are poor, but honest; and have gotten it
+into their heads, that I am a man of quality in disguise; and there is
+no reining-in their officious respect. Here is a pretty little
+smirking daughter, seventeen six days ago. I call her my Rose-bud. Her
+grandmother (for there is no mother), a good neat old woman, as ever
+filled a wicker chair in a chimney-corner, has besought me to be
+merciful to her.
+
+This is the right way with me. Many and many a pretty rogue had I
+spared, whom I did not spare, had my power been acknowledged, and my
+mercy in time implored. But the debellare superbos should be my motto,
+were I to have a new one.
+
+This simple chit (for there is a simplicity in her thou wouldst be
+highly pleased with: all humble; all officious; all innocent--I love her
+for her humility, her officiousness, and even for her innocence) will be
+pretty amusement to thee; while I combat with the weather, and dodge and
+creep about the walls and purlieus of Harlowe-place. Thou wilt see in
+her mind, all that her superiors have been taught to conceal, in order
+to render themselves less natural, and of consequence less pleasing.
+
+But I charge thee, that thou do not (what I would not permit myself to
+do for the world--I charge thee, that thou do not) crop my Rose-bud. She
+is the only flower of fragrance, that has blown in this vicinage for ten
+years past, or will for ten years to come: for I have looked backward
+to the have-been's, and forward to the will-be's; having but too much
+leisure upon my hands in my present waiting.
+
+I never was so honest for so long together since my matriculation. It
+behoves me so to be--some way or other, my recess at this little inn may
+be found out; and it will then be thought that my Rose-bud has attracted
+me. A report in my favour, from simplicities so amiable, may establish
+me; for the grandmother's relation to my Rose-bud may be sworn to: and
+the father is an honest, poor man; has no joy, but in his Rose-bud.--O
+Jack! spare thou, therefore, (for I shall leave thee often alone with
+her, spare thou) my Rose-bud!--Let the rule I never departed from, but
+it cost me a long regret, be observed to my Rose-bud!--never to ruin a
+poor girl, whose simplicity and innocence were all she had to trust to;
+and whose fortunes were too low to save her from the rude contempts of
+worse minds than her own, and from an indigence extreme: such a one will
+only pine in secret; and at last, perhaps, in order to refuge herself
+from slanderous tongues and virulence, be induced to tempt some
+guilty stream, or seek her end in the knee-encircling garter, that
+peradventure, was the first attempt of abandoned love.--No defiances
+will my Rose-bud breathe; no self-dependent, thee-doubting watchfulness
+(indirectly challenging thy inventive machinations to do their worst)
+will she assume. Unsuspicious of her danger, the lamb's throat will
+hardly shun thy knife!--O be not thou the butcher of my lambkin!
+
+The less thou be so, for the reason I am going to give thee--The gentle
+heart is touched by love: her soft bosom heaves with a passion she
+has not yet found a name for. I once caught her eye following a young
+carpenter, a widow neighbour's son, living [to speak in her dialect] at
+the little white house over the way. A gentle youth he also seems to be,
+about three years older than herself: playmates from infancy, till
+his eighteenth and her fifteenth year furnished a reason for a greater
+distance in shew, while their hearts gave a better for their being
+nearer than ever--for I soon perceived the love reciprocal. A scrape and
+a bow at first seeing his pretty mistress; turning often to salute her
+following eye; and, when a winding lane was to deprive him of her sight,
+his whole body turned round, his hat more reverently doffed than before.
+This answered (for, unseen, I was behind her) by a low courtesy, and
+a sigh, that Johnny was too far off to hear!--Happy whelp! said I to
+myself.--I withdrew; and in tript my Rose-bud, as if satisfied with the
+dumb shew, and wishing nothing beyond it.
+
+I have examined the little heart. She has made me her confidant. She
+owns, she could love Johnny Barton very well: and Johnny Barton has told
+her, he could love her better than any maiden he ever saw--but, alas!
+it must not be thought of. Why not be thought of!--She don't know!--And
+then she sighed: But Johnny has an aunt, who will give him an hundred
+pounds, when his time is out; and her father cannot give her but a few
+things, or so, to set her out with: and though Johnny's mother says, she
+knows not where Johnny would have a prettier, or notabler wife, yet--And
+then she sighed again--What signifies talking?--I would not have Johnny
+be unhappy and poor for me!--For what good would that do me, you know,
+Sir!
+
+What would I give [by my soul, my angel will indeed reform me, if her
+friends' implacable folly ruin us not both!--What would I give] to have
+so innocent and so good a heart, as either my Rose-bud's, or Johnny's!
+
+I have a confounded mischievous one--by nature too, I think!--A good
+motion now-and-then rises from it: but it dies away presently--a love
+of intrigue--an invention for mischief--a triumph in subduing--fortune
+encouraging and supporting--and a constitution--What signifies
+palliating? But I believe I had been a rogue, had I been a plough-boy.
+
+But the devil's in this sex! Eternal misguiders. Who, that has once
+trespassed with them, ever recovered his virtue? And yet where there is
+not virtue, which nevertheless we freelivers are continually plotting
+to destroy, what is there even in the ultimate of our wishes with
+them?--Preparation and expectation are in a manner every thing:
+reflection indeed may be something, if the mind be hardened above
+feeling the guilt of a past trespass: but the fruition, what is there in
+that? And yet that being the end, nature will not be satisfied without
+it.
+
+See what grave reflections an innocent subject will produce! It gives
+me some pleasure to think, that it is not out of my power to reform:
+but then, Jack, I am afraid I must keep better company than I do at
+present--for we certainly harden one another. But be not cast down, my
+boy; there will be time enough to give the whole fraternity warning to
+choose another leader: and I fancy thou wilt be the man.
+
+Mean time, as I make it my rule, whenever I have committed a very
+capital enormity, to do some good by way of atonement; and as I believe
+I am a pretty deal indebted on that score, I intend, before I leave
+these parts (successfully shall I leave them I hope, or I shall be
+tempted to double the mischief by way of revenge, though not to my
+Rose-bud any) to join an hundred pounds to Johnny's aunt's hundred
+pounds, to make one innocent couple happy.--I repeat therefore, and for
+half a dozen more therefores, spare thou my Rose-bud.
+
+An interruption--another letter anon; and both shall go together.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV
+
+MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
+
+
+I have found out by my watchful spy almost as many of my charmer's
+motions, as those of the rest of her relations. It delights me to think
+how the rascal is caressed by the uncles and nephew; and let into their
+secrets; yet it proceeds all the time by my line of direction. I have
+charged him, however, on forfeiture of his present weekly stipend, and
+my future favour, to take care, that neither my beloved, nor any of
+the family suspect him: I have told him that he may indeed watch her
+egresses and regresses; but that only keep off other servants from her
+paths; yet not to be seen by her himself.
+
+The dear creature has tempted him, he told them, with a bribe [which she
+never offered] to convey a letter [which she never wrote] to Miss Howe;
+he believes, with one enclosed (perhaps to me): but he declined it: and
+he begged they would take notice of it to her. This brought him a stingy
+shilling; great applause; and an injunction followed it to all the
+servants, for the strictest look-out, lest she should contrive some way
+to send it--and, above an hour after, an order was given him to throw
+himself in her way; and (expressing his concern for denying her request)
+to tender his service to her, and to bring them her letter: which it
+will be proper for him to report that she has refused to give him.
+
+Now seest thou not, how many good ends this contrivance answers?
+
+In the first place, the lady is secured by it, against her own
+knowledge, in the liberty allowed her of taking her private walks in the
+garden: for this attempt has confirmed them in their belief, that now
+they have turned off her maid, she has no way to send a letter out of
+the house: if she had, she would not have run the risque of tempting
+a fellow who had not been in her secret--so that she can prosecute
+unsuspectedly her correspondence with me and Miss Howe.
+
+In the next place, it will perhaps afford me an opportunity of a private
+interview with her, which I am meditating, let her take it as she will;
+having found out by my spy (who can keep off every body else) that
+she goes every morning and evening to a wood-house remote from the
+dwelling-house, under pretence of visiting and feeding a set of
+bantam-poultry, which were produced from a breed that was her
+grandfather's, and of which for that reason she is very fond; as also of
+some other curious fowls brought from the same place. I have an account
+of all her motions here. And as she has owned to me in one of her
+letters that she corresponds privately with Miss Howe, I presume it is
+by this way.
+
+The interview I am meditating, will produce her consent, I hope, to
+other favours of the like kind: for, should she not choose the place
+in which I am expecting to see her, I can attend her any where in the
+rambling Dutch-taste garden, whenever she will permit me that honour:
+for my implement, high Joseph Leman, has procured me the opportunity of
+getting two keys made to the garden-door (one of which I have given him
+for reasons good); which door opens to the haunted coppice, as tradition
+has made the servants think it; a man having been found hanging in it
+about twenty years ago: and Joseph, upon proper notice, will leave it
+unbolted.
+
+But I was obliged previously to give him my honour, that no mischief
+should happen to any of my adversaries, from this liberty: for the
+fellow tells me, that he loves all his masters: and, only that he knows
+I am a man of honour; and that my alliance will do credit to the family;
+and after prejudices are overcome, every body will think so; or he would
+not for the world act the part he does.
+
+There never was a rogue, who had not a salvo to himself for being
+so.--What a praise to honesty, that every man pretends to it, even at
+the instant that he knows he is pursuing the methods that will perhaps
+prove him a knave to the whole world, as well as to his own conscience!
+
+But what this stupid family can mean, to make all this necessary, I
+cannot imagine. My REVENGE and my LOVE are uppermost by turns. If
+the latter succeed not, the gratifying of the former will be my only
+consolation: and, by all that's good, they shall feel it; although for
+it I become an exile from my native country for ever.
+
+I will throw myself into my charmer's presence. I have twice already
+attempted it in vain. I shall then see what I may depend upon from her
+favour. If I thought I had no prospect of that, I should be tempted to
+carry her off. That would be a rape worthy of Jupiter!
+
+But all gentle shall be my movements: all respectful, even to reverence,
+my address to her--her hand shall be the only witness to the pressure
+of my lip--my trembling lip: I know it will tremble, if I do not bid
+it tremble. As soft my sighs, as the sighs of my gentle Rose-bud. By my
+humility will I invite her confidence: the loneliness of the place shall
+give me no advantage: to dissipate her fears, and engage her reliance
+upon my honour for the future, shall be my whole endeavour: but
+little will I complain of, not at all will I threaten, those who are
+continually threatening me: but yet with a view to act the part of
+Dryden's lion; to secure my love, or to let loose my vengeance upon my
+hunters.
+
+ What tho' his mighty soul his grief contains?
+ He meditates revenge who least complains:
+ And like a lion slumb'ring in his way,
+ Or sleep dissembling, while he waits his prey,
+ His fearless foes within his distance draws,
+ Constrains his roaring, and contracts his paws:
+ Till at the last, his time for fury found,
+ He shoots with sudden vengeance from the ground:
+ The prostrate vulgar passes o'er, and spares,
+ But, with a lordly rage, his hunter tears.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SATURDAY, MARCH 18.
+
+
+I have been frighted out of my wits--still am in a manner out of
+breath--thus occasioned--I went down, under the usual pretence, in
+hopes to find something from you. Concerned at my disappointment, I was
+returning from the wood-house, when I heard a rustling as of somebody
+behind a stack of wood. I was extremely surprised: but still more, to
+behold a man coming from behind the furthermost stack. Oh! thought I, at
+that moment, the sin of a prohibited correspondence!
+
+In the same point of time that I saw him, he besought me not to be
+frighted: and, still nearer approaching me, threw open a horseman's
+coat: And who should it be but Mr. Lovelace!--I could not scream out
+(yet attempted to scream, the moment I saw a man; and again, when I saw
+who it was); for I had no voice: and had I not caught hold of a prop
+which supported the old roof, I should have sunk.
+
+I had hitherto, as you know, kept him at a distance: And now, as I
+recovered myself, judge of my first emotions, when I recollected his
+character from every mouth of my family; his enterprising temper; and
+found myself alone with him, in a place so near a bye-lane, and so
+remote from the house.
+
+But his respectful behaviour soon dissipated these fears, and gave me
+others; lest we should be seen together, and information of it given to
+my brother: the consequences of which, I could readily think, would be,
+if not further mischief, an imputed assignation, a stricter confinement,
+a forfeited correspondence with you, my beloved friend, and a pretence
+for the most violent compulsion: and neither the one set of reflections,
+nor the other, acquitted him to me for his bold intrusion.
+
+As soon therefore as I could speak, I expressed with the greatest warmth
+my displeasure; and told him, that he cared not how much he exposed me
+to the resentment of all my friends, provided he could gratify his own
+impetuous humour. I then commanded him to leave the place that moment;
+and was hurrying from him, when he threw himself in the way at my feet,
+beseeching my stay for one moment; declaring, that he suffered himself
+to be guilty of this rashness, as I thought it, to avoid one much
+greater:--for, in short, he could not bear the hourly insults he
+received from my family, with the thoughts of having so little interest
+in my favour, that he could not promise himself that his patience and
+forbearance would be attended with any other issue than to lose me for
+ever, and be triumphed over and insulted upon it.
+
+This man, you know, has very ready knees. You have said, that he ought,
+in small points, frequently to offend, on purpose to shew what an
+address he is master of.
+
+He ran on, expressing his apprehensions that a temper so gentle and
+obliging, as he said mine was, to every body but him, (and a dutifulness
+so exemplary inclined me to do my part to others, whether they did
+theirs or not by me,) would be wrought upon in favour of a man set up in
+part to be revenged upon myself, for my grandfather's envied distinction
+of me; and in part to be revenged upon him, for having given life to
+one, who would have taken his; and now sought to deprive him of hopes
+dearer to him than life.
+
+I told him, he might be assured, that the severity and ill-usage I
+met with would be far from effecting the proposed end: that although I
+could, with great sincerity, declare for a single life (which had always
+been my choice); and particularly, that if ever I married, if they would
+not insist upon the man I had an aversion to, it should not be with the
+man they disliked--
+
+He interrupted me here: He hoped I would forgive him for it; but
+he could not help expressing his great concern, that, after so many
+instances of his passionate and obsequious devotion--
+
+And pray, Sir, said I, let me interrupt you in my turn;--Why don't you
+assert, in still plainer words, the obligation you have laid me under by
+this your boasted devotion? Why don't you let me know, in terms as high
+as your implication, that a perseverance I have not wished for, which
+has set all my relations at variance with me, is a merit that throws
+upon me the guilt of ingratitude for not having answered it as you seem
+to expect?
+
+I must forgive him, he said, if he, who pretended only to a comparative
+merit, (and otherwise thought no man living could deserve me,) had
+presumed to hope for a greater share in my favour, than he had hitherto
+met with, when such men as Mr. Symmes, Mr. Wyerley, and now, lastly, so
+vile a reptile as this Solmes, however discouraged by myself, were made
+his competitors. As to the perseverance I mentioned, it was impossible
+for him not to persevere: but I must needs know, that were he not in
+being, the terms Solmes had proposed were such, as would have involved
+me in the same difficulties with my relations that I now laboured under.
+He therefore took the liberty to say, that my favour to him, far from
+increasing those difficulties, would be the readiest way to extricate me
+from them. They had made it impossible [he told me, with too much truth]
+to oblige them any way, but by sacrificing myself to Solmes. They were
+well apprized besides of the difference between the two; one, whom they
+hoped to manage as they pleased; the other, who could and would protect
+me from every insult; and who had natural prospects much superior to my
+brother's foolish views of a title.
+
+How comes this man to know so well all our foibles? But I more wonder,
+how he came to have a notion of meeting me in this place?
+
+I was very uneasy to be gone; and the more as the night came on apace.
+But there was no getting from him, till I had heard a great deal more of
+what he had to say.
+
+As he hoped, that I would one day make him the happiest man in the
+world, he assured me, that he had so much regard for my fame, that he
+would be as far from advising any step that was likely to cast a shade
+upon my reputation, (although that step was to be ever so much in his
+own favour,) as I would be to follow such advice. But since I was not
+to be permitted to live single, he would submit it to my consideration,
+whether I had any way but one to avoid the intended violence to my
+inclinations--my father so jealous of his authority: both my uncles in
+my father's way of thinking: my cousin Morden at a distance: my uncle
+and aunt Hervey awed into insignificance, was his word: my brother and
+sister inflaming every one: Solmes's offers captivating: Miss Howe's
+mother rather of a party with them, for motives respecting example to
+her own daughter.
+
+And then he asked me, if I would receive a letter from Lady Betty
+Lawrance, on this occasion: for Lady Sarah Sadleir, he said, having
+lately lost her only child, hardly looked into the world, or thought of
+it farther than to wish him married, and, preferably to all the women in
+the world, with me.
+
+To be sure, my dear, there is a great deal in what the man said--I may
+be allowed to say this, without an imputed glow or throb. But I told
+him nevertheless, that although I had great honour for the ladies he
+was related to, yet I should not choose to receive a letter on a subject
+that had a tendency to promote an end I was far from intending to
+promote: that it became me, ill as I was treated at present, to hope
+every thing, to bear every thing, and to try ever thing: when my father
+saw my steadfastness, and that I would die rather than have Mr. Solmes,
+he would perhaps recede--
+
+Interrupting me, he represented the unlikelihood there was of that,
+from the courses they had entered upon; which he thus enumerated:--Their
+engaging Mrs. Howe against me, in the first place, as a person I might
+have thought to fly to, if pushed to desperation--my brother continually
+buzzing in my father's ears, that my cousin Morden would soon arrive,
+and then would insist upon giving me possession of my grandfather's
+estate, in pursuance of the will; which would render me independent
+of my father--their disgraceful confinement of me--their dismissing so
+suddenly my servant, and setting my sister's over me--their engaging my
+mother, contrary to her own judgment, against me: these, he said, were
+all so many flagrant proofs that they would stick at nothing to carry
+their point; and were what made him inexpressibly uneasy.
+
+He appealed to me, whether ever I knew my father recede from any
+resolution he had once fixed; especially, if he thought either
+his prerogative, or his authority concerned in the question. His
+acquaintance with our family, he said, enabled him to give several
+instances (but they would be too grating to me) of an arbitrariness
+that had few examples even in the families of princes: an arbitrariness,
+which the most excellent of women, my mother, too severely experienced.
+He was proceeding, as I thought, with reflections of this sort; and I
+angrily told him, I would not permit my father to be reflected upon;
+adding, that his severity to me, however unmerited, was not a warrant
+for me to dispense with my duty to him.
+
+He had no pleasure, he said, in urging any thing that could be so
+construed; for, however well warranted he was to make such reflections
+from the provocations they were continually giving him, he knew how
+offensive to me any liberties of this sort would be. And yet he must
+own, that it was painful to him, who had youth and passions to be
+allowed for, as well as others, and who had always valued himself under
+speaking his mind, to curb himself, under such treatment. Nevertheless,
+his consideration for me would make him confine himself, in his
+observations, to facts that were too flagrant, and too openly avowed, to
+be disputed. It could not therefore justly displease, he would venture
+to say, if he made this natural inference from the premises, That
+if such were my father's behaviour to a wife, who disputed not the
+imaginary prerogatives he was so unprecedently fond of asserting, what
+room had a daughter to hope, that he would depart from an
+authority he was so earnest, and so much more concerned, to
+maintain?--Family-interests at the same time engaging; an aversion,
+however causelessly conceived, stimulating my brother's and sister's
+resentments and selfish views cooperating; and my banishment from their
+presence depriving me of all personal plea or entreaty in my own favour.
+
+How unhappy, my dear, that there is but too much reason for these
+observations, and for this inference; made, likewise, with more coolness
+and respect to my family than one would have apprehended from a man
+so much provoked, and of passions so high, and generally thought
+uncontroulable!
+
+Will you not question me about throbs and glows, if from such instances
+of a command over his fiery temper, for my sake, I am ready to infer,
+that were my friends capable of a reconciliation with him, he might be
+affected by arguments apparently calculated for his present and future
+good! Nor is it a very bad indication, that he has such moderate notions
+of that very high prerogative in husbands, of which we in our family
+have been accustomed to hear so much.
+
+He represented to me, that my present disgraceful confinement was known
+to all the world: that neither my sister nor my brother scrupled to
+represent me as an obliged and favoured child in a state of actual
+rebellion. That, nevertheless, every body who knew me was ready to
+justify me for an aversion to a man whom every body thought utterly
+unworthy of me, and more fit for my sister: that unhappy as he was,
+in not having been able to make any greater impression upon me in his
+favour, all the world gave me to him. Nor was there but one objection
+made to him by his very enemies (his birth, his prospects all very
+unexceptionable, and the latter splendid); and that objection, he
+thanked God, and my example, was in a fair way of being removed for
+ever: since he had seen his error, and was heartily sick of the courses
+he had followed; which, however, were far less enormous than malice and
+envy had represented them to be. But of this he should say the less, as
+it were much better to justify himself by his actions, than by the most
+solemn asseverations and promises. And then, complimenting my person,
+he assured me (for that he always loved virtue, although he had not
+followed its rules as he ought) that he was still more captivated with
+the graces of my mind: and would frankly own, that till he had the
+honour to know me, he had never met with an inducement sufficient to
+enable him to overcome an unhappy kind of prejudice to matrimony; which
+had made him before impenetrable to the wishes and recommendations of
+all his relations.
+
+You see, my dear, he scruples not to speak of himself, as his enemies
+speak of him. I can't say, but his openness in these particulars gives
+a credit to his other professions. I should easily, I think, detect
+an hypocrite: and this man particularly, who is said to have allowed
+himself in great liberties, were he to pretend to instantaneous lights
+and convictions--at this time of life too. Habits, I am sensible, are
+not so easily changed. You have always joined with me in remarking, that
+he will speak his mind with freedom, even to a degree of unpoliteness
+sometimes; and that his very treatment of my family is a proof that he
+cannot make a mean court to any body for interest sake--What pity, where
+there are such laudable traces, that they should have been so mired, and
+choaked up, as I may say!--We have heard, that the man's head is better
+than his heart: But do you really think Mr. Lovelace can have a very bad
+heart? Why should not there be something in blood in the human
+creature, as well as in the ignobler animals? None of his family are
+exceptionable--but himself, indeed. The characters of the ladies are
+admirable. But I shall incur the imputation I wish to avoid. Yet what a
+look of censoriousness does it carry in an unsparing friend, to take one
+to task for doing that justice, and making those which one ought without
+scruple to do, and to make, in the behalf of any other man living?
+
+He then again pressed me to receive a letter of offered protection from
+Lady Betty. He said, that people of birth stood a little too much upon
+punctilio; as people of value also did (but indeed birth, worthily lived
+up to, was virtue: virtue, birth; the inducements to a decent punctilio
+the same; the origin of both one): [how came this notion from him!]
+else, Lady Betty would write to me: but she would be willing to be first
+apprized that her offer will be well received--as it would have the
+appearance of being made against the liking of one part of my family;
+and which nothing would induce her to make, but the degree of unworthy
+persecution which I actually laboured under, and had reason further to
+apprehend.
+
+I told him, that, however greatly I thought myself obliged to Lady Betty
+Lawrance, if this offer came from herself; yet it was easy to see to
+what it led. It might look like vanity in me perhaps to say, that this
+urgency in him, on this occasion, wore the face of art, in order to
+engage me into measures from which I might not easily extricate myself.
+I said, that I should not be affected by the splendour of even a royal
+title. Goodness, I thought, was greatness. That the excellent characters
+of the ladies of his family weighed more with me, than the consideration
+that they were half-sisters to Lord M. and daughters of an earl: that
+he would not have found encouragement from me, had my friends been
+consenting to his address, if he had only a mere relative merit to those
+ladies: since, in that case, the very reasons that made me admire them,
+would have been so many objections to their kinsman.
+
+I then assured him, that it was with infinite concern, that I had found
+myself drawn into an epistolary correspondence with him; especially
+since that correspondence had been prohibited: and the only agreeable
+use I could think of making of this unexpected and undesired interview,
+was, to let him know, that I should from henceforth think myself obliged
+to discontinue it. And I hoped, that he would not have the thought of
+engaging me to carry it on by menacing my relations.
+
+There was light enough to distinguish, that he looked very grave upon
+this. He so much valued my free choice, he said, and my unbiassed
+favour, (scorning to set himself upon a footing with Solmes in the
+compulsory methods used in that man's behalf,) that he should hate
+himself, were he capable of a view of intimidating me by so very poor
+a method. But, nevertheless, there were two things to be considered:
+First, that the continual outrages he was treated with; the spies set
+over him, one of which he had detected; the indignities all his family
+were likewise treated with;--as also, myself; avowedly in malice to him,
+or he should not presume to take upon himself to resent for me, without
+my leave [the artful wretch saw he would have lain open here, had he not
+thus guarded]--all these considerations called upon him to shew a proper
+resentment: and he would leave it to me to judge, whether it would be
+reasonable for him, as a man of spirit, to bear such insults, if it
+were not for my sake. I would be pleased to consider, in the next place,
+whether the situation I was in, (a prisoner in my father's house, and my
+whole family determined to compel me to marry a man unworthy of me, and
+that speedily, and whether I consented or not,) admitted of delay in the
+preventive measures he was desirous to put me upon, in the last resort
+only. Nor was there a necessity, he said, if I were actually in Lady
+Betty's protection, that I should be his, if, afterwards, I should see
+any thing objectionable in his conduct.
+
+But what would the world conclude would be the end, I demanded, were I,
+in the last resort, as he proposed, to throw myself into the protection
+of his friends, but that it was with such a view?
+
+And what less did the world think of me now, he asked, than that I was
+confined that I might not? You are to consider, Madam, you have not now
+an option; and to whom is it owing that you have not; and that you
+are in the power of those (parents, why should I call them?) who are
+determined, that you shall not have an option. All I propose is, that
+you will embrace such a protection--but not till you have tried every
+way, to avoid the necessity for it.
+
+And give me leave to say, proceeded he, that if a correspondence, on
+which I have founded all my hopes, is, at this critical conjuncture, to
+be broken off; and if you are resolved not to be provided against the
+worst; it must be plain to me, that you will at last yield to that
+worst--worst to me only--it cannot be to you--and then! [and he put his
+hand clenched to his forehead] How shall I bear this supposition?--Then
+will you be that Solmes's!--But, by all that's sacred, neither he, nor
+your brother, nor your uncles, shall enjoy their triumph--Perdition
+seize my soul, if they shall!
+
+The man's vehemence frightened me: yet, in resentment, I would have
+left him; but, throwing himself at my feet again, Leave me not thus--I
+beseech you, dearest Madam, leave me not thus, in despair! I kneel not,
+repenting of what I have vowed in such a case as that I have supposed.
+I re-vow it, at your feet!--and so he did. But think not it is by way
+of menace, or to intimidate you to favour me. If your heart inclines
+you [and then he arose] to obey your father (your brother rather) and to
+have Solmes; although I shall avenge myself on those who have insulted
+me, for their insults to myself and family, yet will I tear out my heart
+from this bosom (if possible with my own hands) were it to scruple to
+give up its ardours to a woman capable of such a preference.
+
+I told him, that he talked to me in very high language; but he might
+assure himself that I never would have Mr. Solmes, (yet that this I said
+not in favour to him,) and I had declared as much to my relations, were
+there not such a man as himself in the world.
+
+Would I declare, that I would still honour him with my
+correspondence?--He could not bear, that, hoping to obtain greater
+instances of my favour, he should forfeit the only one he had to boast
+of.
+
+I bid him forbear rashness or resentment to any of my family, and I
+would, for some time at least, till I saw what issue my present trials
+were likely to have, proceed with a correspondence, which, nevertheless,
+my heart condemned--
+
+And his spirit him, the impatient creature said, interrupting me, for
+bearing what he did; when he considered, that the necessity of it was
+imposed upon him, not by my will, (for then he would bear it cheerfully,
+and a thousand times more,) but by creatures--And there he stopt.
+
+I told him plainly that he might thank himself (whose indifferent
+character, as to morals, had given such a handle against him) for all.
+It was but just, that a man should be spoken evil of, who set no value
+upon his reputation.
+
+He offered to vindicate himself. But I told him, I would judge him by
+his own rule--by his actions, not by his professions.
+
+Were not his enemies, he said, so powerful, and so determined; and had
+they not already shewn their intentions in such high acts of even cruel
+compulsion; but would leave me to my choice, or to my desire of living
+single; he would have been content to undergo a twelvemonth's probation,
+or more: but he was confident, that one month would either complete all
+their purposes, or render them abortive: and I best knew what hopes I
+had of my father's receding--he did not know him, if I had any.
+
+I said, I would try every method, that either my duty or my influence
+upon any of them should suggest, before I would put myself into any
+other protection: and, if nothing else would do, would resign the envied
+estate; and that I dared to say would.
+
+He was contented, he said, to abide that issue. He should be far from
+wishing me to embrace any other protection, but, as he had frequently
+said, in the last necessity. But dearest creature, said he, catching
+my hand with ardour, and pressing it to his lips, if the yielding up
+of that estate will do--resign it--and be mine--and I will corroborate,
+with all my soul, your resignation!
+
+This was not ungenerously said: But what will not these men say to
+obtain belief, and a power over one?
+
+I made many efforts to go; and now it was so dark, that I began to have
+great apprehensions. I cannot say from his behaviour: indeed, he has a
+good deal raised himself in my opinion by the personal respect, even to
+reverence, which he paid me during the whole conference: for, although
+he flamed out once, upon a supposition that Solmes might succeed, it was
+upon a supposition that would excuse passion, if any thing could, you
+know, in a man pretending to love with fervour; although it was so
+levelled, that I could not avoid resenting it.
+
+He recommended himself to my favour at parting, with great earnestness,
+yet with as great submission; not offering to condition any thing with
+me; although he hinted his wishes for another meeting: which I forbad
+him ever attempting again in the same place. And I will own to you,
+from whom I should be really blamable to conceal any thing, that his
+arguments (drawn from the disgraceful treatment I meet with) of what
+I am to expect, make me begin to apprehend that I shall be under an
+obligation to be either the one man's or the other's--and, if so, I
+fancy I shall not incur your blame, were I to say which of the two it
+must be: you have said, which it must not be. But, O my dear, the single
+life is by far the most eligible to me: indeed it is. And I hope yet to
+be permitted to make that option.
+
+I got back without observation; but the apprehension that I should
+not, gave me great uneasiness; and made me begin a letter in a greater
+flutter than he gave me cause to be in, except at the first seeing him;
+for then indeed my spirits failed me; and it was a particular felicity,
+that, in such a place, in such a fright, and alone with him, I fainted
+not away.
+
+I should add, that having reproached him with his behaviour the last
+Sunday at church, he solemnly assured me, that it was not what had been
+represented to me: that he did not expect to see me there: but hoped to
+have an opportunity to address himself to my father, and to be permitted
+to attend him home. But that the good Dr. Lewen had persuaded him not
+to attempt speaking to any of the family, at that time; observing to him
+the emotions into which his presence had put every body. He intended
+no pride, or haughtiness of behaviour, he assured me; and that the
+attributing such to him was the effect of that ill-will which he had
+the mortification to find insuperable: adding, that when he bowed to my
+mother, it was a compliment he intended generally to every one in the
+pew, as well as to her, whom he sincerely venerated.
+
+If he may be believed, (and I should think he would not have come
+purposely to defy my family, yet expect favour from me,) one may see,
+my dear, the force of hatred, which misrepresents all things. Yet why
+should Shorey (except officiously to please her principals) make a
+report in his disfavour? He told me, that he would appeal to Dr. Lewen
+for his justification on this head; adding, that the whole conversation
+between the Doctor and him turned upon his desire to attempt to
+reconcile himself to us all, in the face of the church; and upon
+the Doctor's endeavouring to dissuade him from making such a public
+overture, till he knew how it would be accepted. But to what purpose
+his appeal, when I am debarred from seeing that good man, or any one who
+would advise me what to do in my present difficult situation!
+
+I fancy, my dear, however, that there would hardly be a guilty person in
+the world, were each suspected or accused person to tell his or her own
+story, and be allowed any degree of credit.
+
+I have written a very long letter.
+
+To be so particular as you require in subjects of conversation, it is
+impossible to be short.
+
+I will add to it only the assurance, That I am, and ever will be,
+
+Your affectionate and faithful friend and servant, CLARISSA HARLOWE.
+
+You'll be so good, my dear, as to remember, that the date of your last
+letter to me was the 9th.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII
+
+MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE. SUNDAY, MARCH 19.
+
+
+I beg your pardon, my dearest friend, for having given you occasion to
+remind me of the date of my last. I was willing to have before me as
+much of the workings of your wise relations as possible; being verily
+persuaded, that one side or the other would have yielded by this
+time: and then I should have had some degree of certainty to found my
+observations upon. And indeed what can I write that I have not already
+written?--You know, that I can do nothing but rave at your stupid
+persecutors: and that you don't like. I have advised you to resume your
+own estate: that you won't do. You cannot bear the thoughts of having
+their Solmes: and Lovelace is resolved you shall be his, let who will
+say to the contrary. I think you must be either the one man's or the
+other's. Let us see what their next step will be.
+
+As to Lovelace, while he tells his own story (having also behaved so
+handsomely on his intrusion in the wood-house, and intended so well at
+church) who can say, that the man is in the least blameworthy?--Wicked
+people! to combine against so innocent a man!--But, as I said, let us
+see what their next step will be, and what course you will take upon it;
+and then we may be the more enlightened.
+
+As to your change of style to your uncles, and brother and sister, since
+they were so fond of attributing to you a regard for Lovelace, and would
+not be persuaded to the contrary; and since you only strengthened their
+arguments against yourself by denying it; you did but just as I would
+have done, in giving way to their suspicions, and trying what that would
+do--But if--but if--Pray, my dear, indulge me a little--you yourself
+think it was necessary to apologize to me for that change of style to
+them--and till you will speak out like a friend to her unquestionable
+friend, I must tease you a little--let it run therefore; for it will
+run--
+
+If, then, there be not a reason for this change of style, which you have
+not thought fit to give me, be so good as to watch, as I once before
+advised you, how the cause for it will come on--Why should it be
+permitted to steal upon you, and you know nothing of the matter?
+
+When we get a great cold, we are apt to puzzle ourselves to find out
+when it began, or how we got it; and when that is accounted for, down
+we sit contented, and let it have its course; or, if it be very
+troublesome, take a sweat, or use other means to get rid of it. So
+my dear, before the malady you wot of, yet wot not of, grows so
+importunate, as that you must be obliged to sweat it out, let me advise
+you to mind how it comes on. For I am persuaded, as surely as that I am
+now writing to you, that the indiscreet violence of your friends on the
+one hand, and the insinuating address of Lovelace on the other, (if the
+man be not a greater fool than any body thinks him,) will effectually
+bring it to this, and do all his work for him.
+
+But let it--if it must be Lovelace or Solmes, the choice cannot admit of
+debate. Yet if all be true that is reported, I should prefer almost any
+of your other lovers to either; unworthy as they also are. But who can
+be worthy of a Clarissa?
+
+I wish you are not indeed angry with me for harping so much on one
+string. I must own, that I should think myself inexcusable so to do,
+(the rather, as I am bold enough to imagine it a point out of all doubt
+from fifty places in your letters, were I to labour the proof,) if you
+would ingenuously own--
+
+Own what? you'll say. Why, my Anna Howe, I hope you don't think that I
+am already in love--!
+
+No, to be sure! How can your Anna Howe have such a thought?--What then
+shall we call it? You might have helped me to a phrase--A conditional
+kind of liking!--that's it.--O my friend! did I not know how much you
+despise prudery; and that you are too young, and too lovely, to be a
+prude--
+
+But, avoiding such hard names, let me tell you one thing, my dear (which
+nevertheless I have told you before); and that is this: that I shall
+think I have reason to be highly displeased with you, if, when you write
+to me, you endeavour to keep from me any secret of your heart.
+
+Let me add, that if you would clearly and explicitly tell me, how far
+Lovelace has, or has not, a hold in your affections, I could better
+advise you what to do, than at present I can. You, who are so famed
+for prescience, as I may call it; and than whom no young lady ever had
+stronger pretensions to a share of it; have had, no doubt, reasonings
+in your heart about him, supposing you were to be one day his: [no doubt
+but you have had the same in Solmes's case: whence the ground for the
+hatred of the one; and for the conditional liking of the other.] Will
+you tell me, my dear, what you have thought of Lovelace's best and of
+his worst?--How far eligible for the first; how far rejectable for the
+last?--Then weighing both parts in opposite scales, we shall see which
+is likely to preponderate; or rather which does preponderate. Nothing
+less than the knowledge of the inmost recesses of your heart, can
+satisfy my love and my friendship. Surely, you are not afraid to trust
+yourself with a secret of this nature: if you are, then you may the more
+allowably doubt me. But, I dare say, you will not own either--nor is
+there, I hope, cause for either.
+
+Be pleased to observe one thing, my dear, that whenever I have given
+myself any of those airs of raillery, which have seemed to make you look
+about you, (when, likewise, your case may call for a more serious turn
+from a sympathizing friend,) it has not been upon those passages which
+are written, though, perhaps not intended, with such explicitness [don't
+be alarmed, my dear!] as leaves little cause of doubt: but only when you
+affect reserve; when you give new words for common things; when you
+come with your curiosities, with your conditional likings, and with your
+PRUDE-encies [mind how I spell the word] in a case that with every other
+person defies all prudence--over-acts of treason all these, against the
+sovereign friendship we have avowed to each other.
+
+Remember, that you found me out in a moment. You challenged me. I owned
+directly, that there was only my pride between the man and me; for I
+could not endure, I told you, to think of any fellow living to give me a
+moment's uneasiness. And then my man, as I have elsewhere said, was not
+such a one as yours: so I had reason to impute full as much as to my own
+inconsideration, as to his power over me: nay, more: but still more
+to yours. For you reasoned me out of the curiosity first; and when the
+liking was brought to be conditional--why then, you know, I throbbed no
+more about him.
+
+O! pray now, as you say, now I have mentioned that my fellow was not
+such a charming fellow as yours, let Miss Biddulph, Miss Lloyd, Miss
+Campion, and me, have your opinion, how far figure ought to engage us:
+with a view to your own case, however--mind that--as Mr. Tony says--and
+whether at all, if the man be vain of it; since, as you observe in a
+former, that vanity is a stop-short pride in such a one, that would make
+one justly doubt the worthiness of his interior. You, our pattern, so
+lovely in feature, so graceful in person, have none of it; and have
+therefore with the best grace always held, that it is not excusable even
+in a woman.
+
+You must know, that this subject was warmly debated among us in our last
+conversation: and Miss Lloyd wished me to write to you upon it for your
+opinion; to which, in every debated case, we always paid the greatest
+deference. I hope you will not be so much engrossed by your weighty
+cares, as not to have freedom of spirits enough to enter upon the task.
+You know how much we all admire your opinion on such topics; which ever
+produces something new and instructive, as you handle the subjects. And
+pray tell us, to what you think it owing, that your man seems so careful
+to adorn that self-adorned person of his! yet so manages, that one
+cannot for one's heart think him a coxcomb?--Let this question, and the
+above tasks, divert, and not displease you, my dear. One subject, though
+ever so important, could never yet engross your capacious mind. If
+they should displease you, you must recollect the many instances of my
+impertinence which you have forgiven, and then say, 'This is a mad girl:
+but yet I love her!--And she is my own'
+
+ANNA HOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY, MARCH 20.
+
+
+Your last so sensibly affects me, that I must postpone every other
+consideration, however weighty, to reply to it: and this I will do
+very distinctly, and with all the openness of heart which our mutual
+friendship demands.
+
+But let me observe, in the first place, gratefully observe, that if I
+have in fifty passages of my letters given you such undoubted proofs of
+my value for Mr. Lovelace, that you have spared me for the sake of my
+explicitness, it is acting by me with a generosity worthy of yourself.
+
+But lives the man, think you, who is so very bad, that he does not give
+even a doubting mind reason at one time to be better pleased with him
+than at another? And when that reason offers, is it not just to express
+one's self accordingly? I would do the man who addresses me as much
+justice, as if he did not address me: it has such a look of tyranny, it
+appears so ungenerous, methinks, in our sex, to use a man worse for his
+respect to us, (no other cause for disrespect occurring,) that I would
+not by any means be that person who should do so.
+
+But, although I may intend no more than justice, it will perhaps be
+difficult to hinder those who know the man's views, from construing it
+as a partial favour: and especially if the eager-eyed observer has been
+formerly touched herself, and would triumph that her friend had been no
+more able to escape than she. Noble minds, emulative of perfection, (and
+yet the passion properly directed, I do not take to be an imperfection
+neither,) may be allowed a little generous envy, I think.
+
+If I meant by this a reflection, by way of revenge, it is but a revenge,
+my dear, in the soft sense of the word. I love, as I have told you, your
+pleasantry. Although at the time your reproof may pain me a little; yet,
+on recollection, when I find it more of the cautioning friend than
+of the satirizing observer, I shall be all gratitude upon it. All the
+business will be this; I shall be sensible of the pain in the present
+letter perhaps; but I shall thank you in the next, and ever after.
+
+In this way, I hope, my dear, you will account for a little of
+that sensibility which you find above, and perhaps still more, as I
+proceed.--You frequently remind me, by an excellent example, your own to
+me, that I must not spare you!
+
+I am not conscious, that I have written any thing of this man, that has
+not been more in his dispraise than in his favour. Such is the man, that
+I think I must have been faulty, and ought to take myself to account,
+if I had not. But you think otherwise, I will not put you upon labouring
+the proof, as you call it. My conduct must then have a faulty appearance
+at least, and I will endeavour to rectify it. But of this I assure you,
+that whatever interpretation my words were capable of, I intended not
+any reserve to you. I wrote my heart at the time: if I had had thought
+of disguising it, or been conscious that there was reason for doing
+so, perhaps I had not given you the opportunity of remarking upon my
+curiosity after his relations' esteem for me; nor upon my conditional
+liking, and such-like. All I intended by the first, I believe, I
+honestly told you at the time. To that letter I therefore refer, whether
+it make for me, or against me: and by the other, that I might bear in
+mind, what it became a person of my sex and character to be and to
+do, in such an unhappy situation, where the imputed love is thought an
+undutiful, and therefore a criminal passion; and where the supported
+object of it is a man of faulty morals too. And I am sure you will
+excuse my desire of appearing at those times the person I ought to be;
+had I no other view in it but to merit the continuance of your good
+opinion.
+
+But that I may acquit myself of having reserves--O, my dear, I must here
+break off--!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE MONDAY, MARCH 12.
+
+
+This letter will account to you, my dear, for my abrupt breaking off in
+the answer I was writing to yours of yesterday; and which, possibly,
+I shall not be able to finish and send you till to-morrow or next day;
+having a great deal to say to the subjects you put to me in it. What
+I am now to give you are the particulars of another effort made by my
+friends, through the good Mrs. Norton.
+
+It seems they had sent to her yesterday, to be here this day, to take
+their instructions, and to try what she could do with me. It would,
+at least, I suppose they thought, have this effect; to render me
+inexcusable with her; or to let her see, that there was no room for the
+expostulations she had often wanted to make in my favour to my mother.
+
+The declaration, that my heart was free, afforded them an argument to
+prove obstinacy and perverseness upon me; since it could be nothing else
+that governed me in my opposition to their wills, if I had no particular
+esteem for another man. And now, that I have given them reason (in
+order to obviate this argument) to suppose that I have a preference to
+another, they are resolved to carry their schemes into execution as soon
+as possible. And in order to do this, they sent for this good woman, for
+whom they know I have even a filial regard.
+
+She found assembled my father and mother, my brother and sister, my two
+uncles, and my aunt Hervey.
+
+My brother acquainted her with all that had passed since she was last
+permitted to see me; with the contents of my letters avowing my regard
+for Mr. Lovelace (as they all interpreted them); with the substance of
+their answers to them; and with their resolutions.
+
+My mother spoke next; and delivered herself to this effect, as the good
+woman told me.
+
+After reciting how many times I had been indulged in my refusals of
+different men, and the pains she had taken with me, to induce me to
+oblige my whole family in one instance out of five or six, and my
+obstinacy upon it; 'O my good Mrs. Norton, said the dear lady, could
+you have thought, that my Clarissa and your Clarissa was capable of so
+determined an opposition to the will of parents so indulgent to her? But
+see what you can do with her. The matter is gone too far to be receded
+from on our parts. Her father had concluded every thing with Mr. Solmes,
+not doubting her compliance. Such noble settlements, Mrs. Norton, and
+such advantages to the whole family!--In short, she has it in her power
+to lay an obligation upon us all. Mr. Solmes, knowing she has good
+principles, and hoping by his patience now, and good treatment
+hereafter, to engage her gratitude, and by degrees her love, is willing
+to overlook all!--'
+
+[Overlook all, my dear! Mr. Solmes to overlook all! There's a word!]
+
+'So, Mrs. Norton, if you are convinced, that it is a child's duty to
+submit to her parents' authority, in the most important point as well as
+in the least, I beg you will try your influence over her: I have none:
+her father has none: her uncles neither: although it is her apparent
+interest to oblige us all; for, on that condition, her grandfather's
+estate is not half of what, living and dying, is purposed to be done for
+her. If any body can prevail with her, it is you; and I hope you will
+heartily enter upon this task.'
+
+The good woman asked, Whether she was permitted to expostulate with them
+upon the occasion, before she came up to me?
+
+My arrogant brother told her, she was sent for to expostulate with his
+sister, and not with them. And this, Goody Norton [she is always
+Goody with him!] you may tell her, that the treaty with Mr. Solmes is
+concluded: that nothing but her compliance with her duty is wanting;
+of consequence, that there is no room for your expostulation, or hers
+either.
+
+Be assured of this, Mrs. Norton, said my father, in an angry tone, that
+we will not be baffled by her. We will not appear like fools in this
+matter, and as if we have no authority over our own daughter. We will
+not, in short, be bullied out of our child by a cursed rake, who had
+like to have killed our only son!--And so she had better make a merit
+of her obedience; for comply she shall, if I live; independent as she
+thinks my father's indiscreet bounty has made her of me, her father.
+Indeed, since that, she has never been like she was before. An unjust
+bequest!--And it is likely to prosper accordingly!--But if she marry
+that vile rake Lovelace, I will litigate every shilling with her: tell
+her so; and that the will may be set aside, and shall.
+
+My uncles joined, with equal heat.
+
+My brother was violent in his declarations.
+
+My sister put in with vehemence, on the same side.
+
+My aunt Hervey was pleased to say, there was no article so proper for
+parents to govern in, as this of marriage: and it was very fit mine
+should be obliged.
+
+Thus instructed, the good woman came up to me. She told me all that had
+passed, and was very earnest with me to comply; and so much justice did
+she to the task imposed upon her, that I more than once thought, that
+her own opinion went with theirs. But when she saw what an immovable
+aversion I had to the man, she lamented with me their determined
+resolution: and then examined into the sincerity of my declaration,
+that I would gladly compound with them by living single. Of this being
+satisfied, she was so convinced that this offer, which, carried into
+execution, would exclude Lovelace effectually, ought to be accepted,
+that she would go down (although I told her, it was what I had tendered
+over-and-over to no purpose) and undertake to be guaranty for me on that
+score.
+
+She went accordingly; but soon returned in tears; being used harshly for
+urging this alternative:--They had a right to my obedience upon their
+own terms, they said: my proposal was an artifice, only to gain time:
+nothing but marrying Mr. Solmes should do: they had told me so before:
+they should not be at rest till it was done; for they knew what an
+interest Lovelace had in my heart: I had as good as owned it in my
+letters to my uncles, and brother and sister, although I had most
+disingenuously declared otherwise to my mother. I depended, they said,
+upon their indulgence, and my own power over them: they would not
+have banished me from their presence, if they had not known that their
+consideration for me was greater than mine for them. And they would
+be obeyed, or I never should be restored to their favour, let the
+consequence be what it would.
+
+My brother thought fit to tell the good woman, that her whining nonsense
+did but harden me. There was a perverseness, he said, in female minds, a
+tragedy-pride, that would make a romantic young creature, such a one as
+me, risque any thing to obtain pity. I was of an age, and a turn [the
+insolent said] to be fond of a lover-like distress: and my grief (which
+she pleaded) would never break my heart: I should sooner break that of
+the best and most indulgent of mothers. He added, that she might once
+more go up to me: but that, if she prevailed not, he should suspect,
+that the man they all hated had found a way to attach her to his
+interest.
+
+Every body blamed him for this unworthy reflection; which greatly
+affected the good woman. But nevertheless he said, and nobody
+contradicted him, that if she could not prevail upon her sweet child,
+[as it seems she had fondly called me,] she had best draw to her own
+home, and there tarry till she was sent for; and so leave her sweet
+child to her father's management.
+
+Sure nobody had ever so insolent, so hard-hearted a brother, as I have!
+So much resignation to be expected from me! So much arrogance, and to so
+good a woman, and of so fine an understanding, to be allowed in him.
+
+She nevertheless told him, that however she might be ridiculed for
+speaking of the sweetness of my disposition, she must take upon herself
+to say, that there never was a sweeter in the sex: and that she had
+ever found, that my mild methods, and gentleness, I might at any time be
+prevailed upon, even in points against my own judgment and opinion.
+
+My aunt Hervey hereupon said, It was worth while to consider what
+Mrs. Norton said: and that she had sometimes allowed herself to doubt,
+whether I had been begun with by such methods as generous tempers are
+only to be influenced by, in cases where their hearts are supposed to be
+opposite to the will of their friends.
+
+She had both my brother and sister upon her for this: who referred to
+my mother, whether she had not treated me with an indulgence that had
+hardly any example?
+
+My mother said, she must own, that no indulgence had been wanting from
+her: but she must needs say, and had often said it, that the reception
+I met with on my return from Miss Howe, and the manner in which the
+proposal of Mr. Solmes was made to me, (which was such as left nothing
+to my choice,) and before I had an opportunity to converse with him,
+were not what she had by any means approved of.
+
+She was silenced, you will guess by whom,--with, My dear!--my dear!--You
+have ever something to say, something to palliate, for this rebel of a
+girl!--Remember her treatment of you, of me!--Remember, that the wretch,
+whom we so justly hate, would not dare persist in his purposes, but for
+her encouragement of him, and obstinacy to us.--Mrs. Norton, [angrily to
+her,] go up to her once more--and if you think gentleness will do, you
+have a commission to be gentle--if it will not, never make use of that
+plea again.
+
+Ay, my good woman, said my mother, try your force with her. My sister
+Hervey and I will go up to her, and bring her down in our hands, to
+receive her father's blessing, and assurances of every body's love, if
+she will be prevailed upon: and, in that case, we will all love you the
+better for your good offices.
+
+She came up to me, and repeated all these passages with tears. But I
+told her, that after what had passed between us, she could not hope to
+prevail upon me to comply with measures so wholly my brother's, and so
+much to my aversion. And then folding me to her maternal bosom, I leave
+you, my dearest Miss, said she--I leave you, because I must!--But let me
+beseech you to do nothing rashly; nothing unbecoming your character. If
+all be true that is said, Mr. Lovelace cannot deserve you. If you can
+comply, remember it is your duty to comply. They take not, I own, the
+right method with so generous a spirit. But remember, that there would
+not be any merit in your compliance, if it were not to be against
+your own liking. Remember also, what is expected from a character
+so extraordinary as yours: remember, it is in your power to unite or
+disunite your whole family for ever. Although it should at present be
+disagreeable to you to be thus compelled, your prudence, I dare say,
+when you consider the matter seriously, will enable you to get over
+all prejudices against the one, and all prepossessions in favour of the
+other: and then the obligation you will lay all your family under,
+will be not only meritorious in you, with regard to them, but in a few
+months, very probably, highly satisfactory, as well as reputable, to
+yourself.
+
+Consider, my dear Mrs. Norton, said I, only consider, that it is not a
+small thing that is insisted upon; not for a short duration; it is for
+my life: consider too, that all this is owing to an overbearing brother,
+who governs every body. Consider how desirous I am to oblige them, if
+a single life, and breaking all correspondence with the man they hate,
+because my brother hates him, will do it.
+
+I consider every thing, my dearest Miss: and, added to what I have said,
+do you only consider, that if, by pursuing your own will, and rejecting
+theirs, you should be unhappy, you will be deprived of all that
+consolation which those have, who have been directed by their parents,
+although the event prove not answerable to their wishes.
+
+I must go, repeated she: your brother will say [and she wept] that I
+harden you by my whining nonsense. 'Tis indeed hard, that so much
+regard should be paid to the humours of one child, and so little to
+the inclination of another. But let me repeat, that it is your duty to
+acquiesce, if you can acquiesce: your father has given your brother's
+schemes his sanction, and they are now his. Mr. Lovelace, I doubt,
+is not a man that will justify your choice so much as he will their
+dislike. It is easy to see that your brother has a view in discrediting
+you with all your friends, with your uncles in particular: but for that
+very reason, you should comply, if possible, in order to disconcert his
+ungenerous measures. I will pray for you; and that is all I can do for
+you. I must now go down, and make a report, that you are resolved never
+to have Mr. Solmes--Must I?--Consider, my dear Miss Clary--Must I?
+
+Indeed you must!--But of this I do assure you, that I will do nothing to
+disgrace the part you have had in my education. I will bear every thing
+that shall be short of forcing my hand into his who never can have any
+share in my heart. I will try by patient duty, by humility, to overcome
+them. But death will I choose, in any shape, rather than that man.
+
+I dread to go down, said she, with so determined an answer: they will
+have no patience with me.--But let me leave you with one observation,
+which I beg of you always to bear in mind:--
+
+'That persons of prudence, and distinguished talents, like yours, seem
+to be sprinkled through the world, to give credit, by their example, to
+religion and virtue. When such persons wilfully err, how great must
+be the fault! How ungrateful to that God, who blessed them with such
+talents! What a loss likewise to the world! What a wound to virtue!--But
+this, I hope, will never be to be said of Miss Clarissa Harlowe!'
+
+I could give her no answer, but by my tears. And I thought, when she
+went away, the better half of my heart went with her.
+
+I listened to hear what reception she would meet with below; and found
+it was just such a one as she had apprehended.
+
+Will she, or will she not, be Mrs. Solmes? None of your whining
+circumlocutions, Mrs. Norton!--[You may guess who said this] Will she,
+or will she not, comply with her parents' will?
+
+This cut short all she was going to say.
+
+If I must speak so briefly, Miss will sooner die, than have--
+
+Any body but Lovelace! interrupted my brother.--This, Madam, this, Sir,
+is your meek daughter! This is Mrs. Norton's sweet child!--Well, Goody,
+you may return to your own habitation. I am empowered to forbid you to
+have any correspondence with this perverse girl for a month to come, as
+you value the favour of our whole family, or of any individual of it.
+
+And saying this, uncontradicted by any body, he himself shewed her
+to the door,--no doubt, with all that air of cruel insult, which the
+haughty rich can put on to the unhappy low, who have not pleased them.
+
+So here, my dear Miss Howe, am I deprived of the advice of one of the
+most prudent and conscientious women in the world, were I to have ever
+so much occasion for it.
+
+I might indeed write (as I presume, under your cover) and receive her
+answers to what I should write. But should such a correspondence be
+charged upon her, I know she would not be guilty of a falsehood for the
+world, nor even of an equivocation: and should she own it after this
+prohibition, she would forfeit my mother's favour for ever. And in my
+dangerous fever, some time ago, I engaged my mother to promise me, that,
+if I died before I could do any thing for the good woman, she would set
+her above want for the rest of her life, should her eyes fail her, or
+sickness befall her, and she could not provide for herself, as she now
+so prettily does by her fine needle-works.
+
+What measures will they fall upon next?--Will they not recede when they
+find that it must be a rooted antipathy, and nothing else, that could
+make a temper, not naturally inflexible, so sturdy?
+
+Adieu, my dear. Be you happy!--To know that it is in your power to be
+so, is all that seems wanting to make you so.
+
+CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE [In continuation of the subject in
+Letter XXXVIII.]
+
+
+I will now, though midnight (for I have no sleep in my eyes) resume
+the subject I was forced so abruptly to quit, and will obey yours, Miss
+Lloyd's, Miss Campion's, and Miss Biddulph's call, with as much temper
+as my divided thought will admit. The dead stillness of this solemn hour
+will, I hope, contribute to calm my disturbed mind.
+
+In order to acquit myself of so heavy a charge as that of having
+reserves to so dear a friend, I will acknowledge (and I thought I had
+over-and-over) that it is owing to my particular situation, if Mr.
+Lovelace appears to me in a tolerable light: and I take upon me to say,
+that had they opposed to him a man of sense, of virtue, of generosity;
+one who enjoyed his fortune with credit, who had a tenderness in his
+nature for the calamities of others, which would have given a moral
+assurance, that he would have been still less wanting in grateful
+returns to an obliging spirit:--had they opposed such a man as this to
+Mr. Lovelace, and been as earnest to have me married, as now they are,
+I do not know myself, if they would have had reason to tax me with that
+invincible obstinacy which they lay to my charge: and this whatever
+had been the figure of the man; since the heart is what we women should
+judge by in the choice we make, as the best security for the party's
+good behaviour in every relation of life.
+
+But, situated as I am, thus persecuted and driven, I own to you, that
+I have now-and-then had a little more difficulty than I wished for, in
+passing by Mr. Lovelace's tolerable qualities, to keep up my dislike to
+him for his others.
+
+You say, I must have argued with myself in his favour, and in his
+disfavour, on a supposition, that I might possibly be one day his. I
+own that I have: and thus called upon by my dearest friend, I will set
+before you both parts of the argument.
+
+And first, what occurred to me in his favour.
+
+At his introduction into our family, his negative virtues were insisted
+upon:--He was no gamester; no horse-racer; no fox-hunter; no drinker:
+my poor aunt Hervey had, in confidence, given us to apprehend much
+disagreeable evil (especially to a wife of the least delicacy) from a
+wine-lover: and common sense instructed us, that sobriety in a man is
+no small point to be secured, when so many mischiefs happen daily from
+excess. I remember, that my sister made the most of this favourable
+circumstance in his character while she had any hopes of him.
+
+He was never thought to be a niggard; not even ungenerous: nor when
+his conduct came to be inquired into, an extravagant, a squanderer: his
+pride [so far was it a laudable pride] secured him from that. Then he
+was ever ready to own his errors. He was no jester upon sacred things:
+poor Mr. Wyerley's fault; who seemed to think there was wit in saying
+bold things, which would shock a serious mind. His conversation with us
+was always unexceptionable, even chastely so; which, be his actions what
+they would, shewed him capable of being influenced by decent company;
+and that he might probably therefore be a led man, rather than a leader,
+in other company. And one late instance, so late as last Saturday
+evening, has raised him not a little in my opinion, with regard to this
+point of good (and at the same time, of manly) behaviour.
+
+As to the advantage of birth, that is of his side, above any man who has
+been found out for me. If we may judge by that expression of his,
+which you were pleased with at the time; 'That upon true quality, and
+hereditary distinction, if good sense were not wanting, humour sat as
+easy as his glove;' that, with as familiar an air, was his familiar
+expression; 'while none but the prosperous upstart, MUSHROOMED into
+rank, (another of his peculiars,) was arrogantly proud of it.'--If, I
+say, we may judge of him by this, we shall conclude in his favour, that
+he knows what sort of behaviour is to be expected from persons of birth,
+whether he act up to it or not. Conviction is half way to amendment.
+
+His fortunes in possession are handsome; in expectation, splendid: so
+nothing need be said on that subject.
+
+But it is impossible, say some, that he should make a tender or kind
+husband. Those who are for imposing upon me such a man as Mr. Solmes,
+and by methods so violent, are not entitled to make this objection. But
+now, on this subject, let me tell you how I have argued with myself--for
+still you must remember, that I am upon the extenuating part of his
+character.
+
+A great deal of the treatment a wife may expect from him, will possibly
+depend upon herself. Perhaps she must practise as well as promise
+obedience, to a man so little used to controul; and must be careful to
+oblige. And what husband expects not this?--The more perhaps if he had
+not reason to assure himself of the preferable love of his wife before
+she became such. And how much easier and pleasanter to obey the man of
+her choice, if he should be even more unreasonable sometimes, than one
+she would not have had, could she have avoided it? Then, I think, as
+the men were the framers of the matrimonial office, and made obedience
+a part of the woman's vow, she ought not, even in policy, to shew him,
+that she can break through her part of the contract, (however lightly
+she may think of the instance,) lest he should take it into his head
+(himself is judge) to think as lightly of other points, which she may
+hold more important--but, indeed, no point so solemnly vowed can be
+slight.
+
+Thus principled, and acting accordingly, what a wretch must that husband
+be, who could treat such a wife brutally!--Will Lovelace's wife be the
+only person to whom he will not pay the grateful debt of civility and
+good manners? He is allowed to be brave: Who ever knew a brave man, if a
+brave man of sense, an universally base man? And how much the gentleness
+of our sex, and the manner of our training up and education, make us
+need the protection of the brave, and the countenance of the generous,
+let the general approbation, which we are all so naturally inclined to
+give to men of that character, testify.
+
+At worst, will he confine me prisoner to my chamber? Will he deny me the
+visits of my dearest friend, and forbid me to correspond with her? Will
+he take from me the mistressly management, which I had not faultily
+discharged? Will he set a servant over me, with license to insult me?
+Will he, as he has not a sister, permit his cousins Montague, or would
+either of those ladies accept of a permission, to insult and tyrannize
+over me?--It cannot be.--Why then, think I often, do you tempt me, O my
+cruel friends, to try the difference?
+
+And then has the secret pleasure intruded itself, to be able to reclaim
+such a man to the paths of virtue and honour: to be a secondary means,
+if I were to be his, of saving him, and preventing the mischiefs so
+enterprising a creature might otherwise be guilty of, if he be such a
+one.
+
+When I have thought of him in these lights, (and that as a man of sense
+he will sooner see his errors, than another,) I own to you, that I have
+had some difficulty to avoid taking the path they so violently endeavour
+to make me shun: and all that command of my passions which has been
+attributed to me as my greatest praise, and, in so young a creature, as
+my distinction, has hardly been sufficient for me.
+
+And let me add, that the favour of his relations (all but himself
+unexceptionable) has made a good deal of additional weight, thrown in
+the same scale.
+
+But now, in his disfavour. When I have reflected upon the prohibition
+of my parents; the giddy appearance, disgraceful to our sex, that such
+a preference would have: that there is no manner of likelihood, enflamed
+by the rencounter, and upheld by art and ambition on my brother's side,
+that ever the animosity will be got over: that I must therefore be at
+perpetual variance with all my own family: that I must go to him, and to
+his, as an obliged and half-fortuned person: that his aversion to them
+all is as strong as theirs to him: that his whole family are hated
+for his sake; they hating ours in return: that he has a very immoral
+character as to women: that knowing this, it is a high degree of
+impurity to think of joining in wedlock with such a man: that he is
+young, unbroken, his passions unsubdued: that he is violent in his
+temper, yet artful; I am afraid vindictive too: that such a husband
+might unsettle me in all my own principles, and hazard my future hopes:
+that his own relations, two excellent aunts, and an uncle, from whom
+he has such large expectations, have no influence upon him: that what
+tolerable qualities he has, are founded more in pride than in virtue:
+that allowing, as he does, the excellency of moral precepts, and
+believing the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, he can live as
+if he despised the one, and defied the other: the probability that the
+taint arising from such free principles, may go down into the manners
+of posterity: that I knowing these things, and the importance of them,
+should be more inexcusable than one who knows them not; since an error
+against judgment is worse, infinitely worse, than an error in judgment.
+Reflecting upon these things, I cannot help conjuring you, my dear, to
+pray with me, and to pray for me, that I may not be pushed upon such
+indiscreet measures, as will render me inexcusable to myself: for that
+is the test, after all. The world's opinion ought to be but a secondary
+consideration.
+
+I have said in his praise, that he is extremely ready to own his errors:
+but I have sometimes made a great drawback upon this article, in his
+disfavour; having been ready to apprehend, that this ingenuousness may
+possibly be attributable to two causes, neither of them, by any means,
+creditable to him. The one, that his vices are so much his masters, that
+he attempts not to conquer them; the other, that he may think it policy,
+to give up one half of his character to save the other, when the
+whole may be blamable: by this means, silencing by acknowledgment
+the objections he cannot answer; which may give him the praise of
+ingenuousness, when he can obtain no other, and when the challenged
+proof might bring out, upon discussion, other evils. These, you will
+allow, are severe constructions; but every thing his enemies say of him
+cannot be false.
+
+I will proceed by-and-by.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Sometimes we have both thought him one of the most undesigning merely
+witty men we ever knew; at other times one of the deepest creatures
+we ever conversed with. So that when in one visit we have imagined
+we fathomed him, in the next he has made us ready to give him up as
+impenetrable. This impenetrableness, my dear, is to be put among the
+shades in his character. Yet, upon the whole, you have been so far
+of his party, that you have contested that his principal fault is
+over-frankness, and too much regardlessness of appearances, and that he
+is too giddy to be very artful: you would have it, that at the time he
+says any thing good, he means what he speaks; that his variableness and
+levity are constitutional, owing to sound health, and to a soul and body
+[that was your observation] fitted for and pleased with each other. And
+hence you concluded, that could this consentaneousness [as you call it]
+of corporal and animal faculties be pointed by discretion; that is
+to say, could his vivacity be confined within the pale of but moral
+obligations, he would be far from being rejectable as a companion for
+life.
+
+But I used then to say, and I still am of opinion, that he wants
+a heart: and if he does, he wants every thing. A wrong head may be
+convinced, may have a right turn given it: but who is able to give a
+heart, if a heart be wanting? Divine Grace, working a miracle, or next
+to a miracle, can only change a bad heart. Should not one fly the man
+who is but suspected of such a one? What, O what, do parents do, when
+they endeavour to force a child's inclination, but make her think better
+than otherwise she would think of a man obnoxious to themselves, and
+perhaps whose character will not stand examination?
+
+I have said, that I think Mr. Lovelace a vindictive man: upon my word, I
+have sometimes doubted, whether his perseverance in his addresses to
+me has not been the more obstinate, since he has found himself so
+disagreeable to my friends. From that time I verily think he has
+been the more fervent in them; yet courts them not, but sets them at
+defiance. For this indeed he pleads disinterestedness [I am sure he
+cannot politeness]; and the more plausibly, as he is apprized of the
+ability they have to make it worth his while to court them. 'Tis true
+he has declared, and with too much reason, (or there would be no bearing
+him,) that the lowest submissions on his part would not be accepted; and
+to oblige me, has offered to seek a reconciliation with them, if I would
+give him hope of success.
+
+As to his behaviour at church, the Sunday before last, I lay no stress
+upon that, because I doubt there was too much outward pride in his
+intentional humility, or Shorey, who is not his enemy, could not have
+mistaken it.
+
+I do not think him so deeply learned in human nature, or in ethics, as
+some have thought him. Don't you remember how he stared at the following
+trite observations, which every moralist could have furnished him with?
+Complaining as he did, in a half-menacing strain, of the obloquies
+raised against him--'That if he were innocent, he should despise the
+obloquy: if not, revenge would not wipe off his guilt.' 'That nobody
+ever thought of turning a sword into a sponge!' 'That it was in his own
+power by reformation of an error laid to his charge by an enemy, to make
+that enemy one of his best friends; and (which was the noblest revenge
+in the world) against his will; since an enemy would not wish him to be
+without the faults he taxed him with.'
+
+But the intention, he said, was the wound.
+
+How so, I asked him, when that cannot wound without the application?
+'That the adversary only held the sword: he himself pointed it to his
+breast:--And why should he mortally resent that malice, which he might
+be the better for as long as he lived?'--What could be the reading
+he has been said to be master of, to wonder, as he did, at these
+observations?
+
+But, indeed, he must take pleasure in revenge; and yet holds others to
+be inexcusable for the same fault. He is not, however, the only one
+who can see how truly blamable those errors are in another, which they
+hardly think such in themselves.
+
+From these considerations, from these over-balances, it was, that I
+said, in a former, that I would not be in love with this man for the
+world: and it was going further than prudence would warrant, when I was
+for compounding with you, by the words conditional liking, which you so
+humourously rally.
+
+Well but, methinks you say, what is all this to the purpose? This is
+still but reasoning: but, if you are in love, you are: and love,
+like the vapours, is the deeper rooted for having no sufficient cause
+assignable for its hold. And so you call upon me again to have no
+reserves, and so-forth.
+
+Why then, my dear, if you will have it, I think, that, with all his
+preponderating faults, I like him better than I ever thought I should
+like him; and, those faults considered, better perhaps than I ought to
+like him. And I believe, it is possible for the persecution I labour
+under to induce me to like him still more--especially while I can
+recollect to his advantage our last interview, and as every day produces
+stronger instances of tyranny, I will call it, on the other side.--In
+a word, I will frankly own (since you cannot think any thing I say too
+explicit) that were he now but a moral man, I would prefer him to all
+the men I ever saw.
+
+So that this is but conditional liking still, you'll say: nor, I hope,
+is it more. I never was in love as it is called; and whether this be it,
+or not, I must submit to you. But will venture to think it, if it be,
+no such mighty monarch, no such unconquerable power, as I have heard
+it represented; and it must have met with greater encouragement than
+I think I have given it, to be absolutely unconquerable--since I am
+persuaded, that I could yet, without a throb, most willingly give up the
+one man to get rid of the other.
+
+But now to be a little more serious with you: if, my dear, my
+particularly-unhappy situation had driven (or led me, if you please)
+into a liking of the man; and if that liking had, in your opinion,
+inclined me to love him, should you, whose mind is susceptible of the
+most friendly impressions, who have such high notions of the delicacy
+which ought to be observed by our sex in these matters, and who actually
+do enter so deeply into the distresses of one you love--should you
+have pushed so far that unhappy friend on so very nice a
+subject?--Especially, when I aimed not (as you could prove by fifty
+instances, it seems) to guard against being found out. Had you rallied
+me by word of mouth in the manner you do, it might have been more in
+character; especially, if your friend's distresses had been surmounted,
+and if she had affected prudish airs in revolving the subject: but to
+sit down to write it, as methinks I see you, with a gladdened eye, and
+with all the archness of exultation--indeed, my dear, (and I take notice
+of it, rather for the sake of your own generosity, than for my sake,
+for, as I have said, I love your raillery,) it is not so very pretty;
+the delicacy of the subject, and the delicacy of your own mind,
+considered.
+
+I lay down my pen here, that you may consider of it a little, if you
+please.
+
+
+***
+
+
+I resume, to give you my opinion of the force which figure or person
+ought to have upon our sex: and this I shall do both generally as to the
+other sex, and particularly as to this man; whence you will be able to
+collect how far my friends are in the right, or in the wrong, when
+they attribute a good deal of prejudice in favour of one man, and in
+disfavour of the other, on the score of figure. But, first, let me
+observe, that they see abundant reason, on comparing Mr. Lovelace and
+Mr. Solmes together, to believe that this may be a consideration with
+me; and therefore they believe it is.
+
+There is certainly something very plausible and attractive, as well
+as creditable to a woman's choice, in figure. It gives a favourable
+impression at first sight, in which we wish to be confirmed: and if,
+upon further acquaintance, we find reason to be so, we are pleased with
+our judgment, and like the person the better, for having given us cause
+to compliment our own sagacity, in our first-sighted impressions. But,
+nevertheless, it has been generally a rule with me, to suspect a fine
+figure, both in man and woman; and I have had a good deal of reason
+to approve my rule;--with regard to men especially, who ought to value
+themselves rather upon their intellectual than personal qualities.
+For, as to our sex, if a fine woman should be led by the opinion of the
+world, to be vain and conceited upon her form and features; and that to
+such a degree, as to have neglected the more material and more durable
+recommendations, the world will be ready to excuse her; since a pretty
+fool, in all she says, and in all she does, will please, we know not
+why.
+
+But who would grudge this pretty fool her short day! Since, with her
+summer's sun, when her butterfly flutters are over, and the winter
+of age and furrows arrives, she will feel the just effects of having
+neglected to cultivate her better faculties: for then, lie another
+Helen, she will be unable to bear the reflection even of her own glass,
+and being sunk into the insignificance of a mere old woman, she will
+be entitled to the contempts which follow that character. While the
+discreet matron, who carries up [we will not, in such a one's case,
+say down] into advanced life, the ever-amiable character of virtuous
+prudence and useful experience, finds solid veneration take place of
+airy admiration, and more than supply the want of it.
+
+But for a man to be vain of his person, how effeminate! If such a
+one happens to have genius, it seldom strikes deep into intellectual
+subjects. His outside usually runs away with him. To adorn, and perhaps,
+intending to adorn, to render ridiculous that person, takes up all his
+attention. All he does is personal; that is to say, for himself: all he
+admires, is himself: and in spite of the correction of the stage, which
+so often and so justly exposes a coxcomb, he usually dwindles down, and
+sinks into that character; and, of consequence, becomes the scorn of one
+sex, and the jest of the other.
+
+This is generally the case of your fine figures of men, and of those who
+value themselves on dress and outward appearance: whence it is, that I
+repeat, that mere person in a man is a despicable consideration. But
+if a man, besides figure, has learning, and such talents as would have
+distinguished him, whatever were his form, then indeed person is an
+addition: and if he has not run too egregiously into self-admiration,
+and if he has preserved his morals, he is truly a valuable being.
+
+Mr. Lovelace has certainly taste; and, as far as I am able to determine,
+he has judgment in most of the politer arts. But although he has a
+humourous way of carrying it off, yet one may see that he values himself
+not a little, both on his person and his parts, and even upon his dress;
+and yet he has so happy an ease in the latter, that it seems to be the
+least part of his study. And as to the former, I should hold myself
+inexcusable, if I were to add to his vanity by shewing the least regard
+for what is too evidently so much his.
+
+And now, my dear, let me ask you, Have I come up to your expectation? If
+I have not, when my mind is more at ease, I will endeavour to please
+you better. For, methinks, my sentences drag, my style creeps, my
+imagination is sunk, my spirits serve me not, only to tell you, that
+whether I have more or less, I am wholly devoted to the commands of my
+dear Miss Howe.
+
+
+
+P.S. The insolent Betty Barnes has just now fired me anew, by reporting
+to me the following expressions of the hideous creature, Solmes--'That
+he is sure of the coy girl; and that with little labour to himself. That
+be I ever so averse to him beforehand, he can depend upon my principles;
+and it will be a pleasure to him to see by what pretty degrees I shall
+come to.' [Horrid wretch!] 'That it was Sir Oliver's observation, who
+knew the world perfectly well, that fear was a better security than
+love, for a woman's good behaviour to her husband; although, for his
+part, to such a fine creature [truly] he would try what love would do,
+for a few weeks at least; being unwilling to believe what the old knight
+used to aver, that fondness spoils more wives than it makes good.'
+
+What think you, my dear, of such a wretch as this! tutored, too, by that
+old surly misogynist, as he was deemed, Sir Oliver?--
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 21.
+
+
+How willingly would my dear mother shew kindness to me, were she
+permitted! None of this persecution should I labour under, I am sure, if
+that regard were paid to her prudence and fine understanding, which they
+so well deserve. Whether owing to her, or to my aunt, or to both, that
+a new trial was to be made upon me, I cannot tell, but this morning her
+Shorey delivered into my hand the following condescending letter.
+
+
+MY DEAR GIRL,
+
+For so I must still call you; since dear you may be to me, in every
+sense of the word--we have taken into particular consideration some
+hints that fell yesterday from your good Norton, as if we had not, at
+Mr. Solmes's first application, treated you with that condescension,
+wherewith we have in all other instances treated you. If it even had
+been so, my dear, you were not excusable to be wanting in your part,
+and to set yourself to oppose your father's will in a point which he had
+entered too far, to recede with honour. But all yet may be well. On your
+single will, my child, depends all our happiness.
+
+Your father permits me to tell you, that if you now at last comply with
+his expectations, all past disobligations shall be buried in oblivion,
+as if they had never been: but withal, that this is the last time that
+that grace will be offered you.
+
+I hinted to you, you must remember,* that patterns of the richest silks
+were sent for. They are come. And as they are come, your father, to shew
+how much he is determined, will have me send them up to you. I could
+have wished they might not have accompanied this letter, but there is
+not great matter in that. I must tell you, that your delicacy is not
+quite so much regarded as I had once thought it deserved to be.
+
+
+     * See Letter XX.
+
+
+These are the newest, as well as richest, that we could procure;
+answerable to our situation in the world; answerable to the fortune,
+additional to your grandfather's estate, designed you; and to the noble
+settlements agreed upon.
+
+Your father intends you six suits (three of them dressed suits) at his
+own expense. You have an entire new suit; and one besides, which I think
+you never wore but twice. As the new suit is rich, if you choose to
+make that one of the six, your father will present you with an hundred
+guineas in lieu.
+
+Mr. Solmes intends to present you with a set of jewels. As you have your
+grandmother's and your own, if you choose to have the former new set,
+and to make them serve, his present will be made in money; a very round
+sum--which will be given in full property to yourself; besides a fine
+annual allowance for pin-money, as it is called. So that your objection
+against the spirit of a man you think worse of than it deserves, will
+have no weight; but you will be more independent than a wife of less
+discretion than we attribute to you, perhaps ought to be. You know full
+well, that I, who first and last brought a still larger fortune into the
+family than you will carry to Mr. Solmes, had not a provision made me
+of near this that we have made for you.--Where people marry to their
+liking, terms are the least things stood upon--yet should I be sorry if
+you cannot (to oblige us all) overcome a dislike.
+
+Wonder not, Clary, that I write to you thus plainly and freely upon
+this subject. Your behaviour hitherto has been such, that we have had no
+opportunity of entering minutely into the subject with you. Yet, after
+all that has passed between you and me in conversation, and between you
+and your uncles by letter, you have no room to doubt what is to be the
+consequence.--Either, child, we must give up our authority, or you your
+humour. You cannot expect the one. We have all the reason in the world
+to expect the other. You know I have told you more than once, that
+you must resolve to have Mr. Solmes, or never to be looked upon as our
+child.
+
+The draught of the settlement you may see whenever you will. We think
+there can be no room for objection to any of the articles. There is
+still more in them in our family's favour, than was stipulated at first,
+when your aunt talked of them to you. More so, indeed, than we
+could have asked. If, upon perusal of them, you think any alteration
+necessary, it shall be made.--Do, my dear girl, send to me within this
+day or two, or rather ask me, for the perusal of them.
+
+As a certain person's appearance at church so lately, and what he gives
+out every where, makes us extremely uneasy, and as that uneasiness will
+continue while you are single, you must not wonder that a short day
+is intended. This day fortnight we design it to be, if you have no
+objection to make that I shall approve of. But if you determine as we
+would have you, and signify it to us, we shall not stand with you for a
+week or so.
+
+Your sightlines of person may perhaps make some think this alliance
+disparaging. But I hope you will not put such a personal value upon
+yourself: if you do, it will indeed be the less wonder that person
+should weigh with you (however weak the consideration!) in another man.
+
+Thus we parents, in justice, ought to judge: that our two daughters are
+equally dear and valuable to us: if so, why should Clarissa think that
+a disparagement, which Arabella would not (nor we for her) have thought
+any, had the address been made to her?--You will know what I mean by
+this, without my explaining myself farther.
+
+Signify to us, now, therefore, your compliance with our wishes. And then
+there is an end of your confinement. An act of oblivion, as I may call
+it, shall pass upon all your former refractoriness: and you will once
+more make us happy in you, and in one another. You may, in this case,
+directly come down to your father and me, in his study; where we will
+give you our opinions of the patterns, with our hearty forgiveness and
+blessings.
+
+Come, be a good child, as you used to be, my Clarissa. I have
+(notwithstanding your past behaviour, and the hopelessness which some
+have expressed in your compliance) undertaken this one time more for
+you. Discredit not my hopes, my dear girl. I have promised never more
+to interfere between your father and you, if this my most earnest
+application succeed not. I expect you down, love. Your father expects
+you down. But be sure don't let him see any thing uncheerful in your
+compliance. If you come, I will clasp you to my fond heart, with as much
+pleasure as ever I pressed you to it in my whole life. You don't know
+what I have suffered within these few weeks past; nor ever will be able
+to guess, till you come to be in my situation; which is that of a fond
+and indulgent mother, praying night and day, and struggling to preserve,
+against the attempts of more ungovernable spirits, the peace and union
+of her family.
+
+But you know the terms. Come not near us, if you have resolve to be
+undutiful: but this, after what I have written, I hope you cannot be.
+
+If you come directly, and, as I have said, cheerfully, as if your heart
+were in your duty, (and you told me it was free, you know,) I shall
+then, as I said, give you the most tender proofs how much I am
+
+Your truly affectionate Mother.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Think for me, my dearest friend, how I must be affected by this letter;
+the contents of it is so surprisingly terrifying, yet so sweetly
+urged!--O why, cried I to myself, am I obliged to undergo this
+severe conflict between a command that I cannot obey, and language so
+condescendingly moving!--Could I have been sure of being struck dead
+at the alter before the ceremony had given the man I hate a title to my
+vows, I think I could have submitted to having been led to it. But to
+think of living with and living for a man one abhors, what a sad thing
+is that!
+
+And then, how could the glare of habit and ornament be supposed any
+inducement to one, who has always held, that the principal view of a
+good wife in the adorning of her person, ought to be, to preserve the
+affection of her husband, and to do credit to his choice; and that she
+should be even fearful of attracting the eyes of others?--In this view,
+must not the very richness of the patterns add to my disgusts?--Great
+encouragement, indeed, to think of adorning one's self to be the wife of
+Mr. Solmes!
+
+Upon the whole, it was not possible for me to go down upon the
+prescribed condition. Do you think it was?--And to write, if my letter
+would have been read, what could I write that would be admitted, and
+after what I had written and said to so little effect?
+
+I walked backward and forward. I threw down with disdain the patterns.
+Now to my closet retired I; then quitting it, threw myself upon the
+settee; then upon this chair, then upon that; then into one window, then
+into another--I knew not what to do!--And while I was in this suspense,
+having again taken up the letter to re-peruse it, Betty came in,
+reminding me, by order, that my papa and mamma waited for me in my
+father's study.
+
+Tell my mamma, said I, that I beg the favour of seeing her here for one
+moment, or to permit me to attend her any where by herself.
+
+I listened at the stairs-head--You see, my dear, how it is, cried
+my father, very angrily: all your condescension (as your indulgence
+heretofore) is thrown away. You blame your son's violence, as you call
+it [I had some pleasure in hearing this]; but nothing else will do with
+her. You shall not see her alone. Is my presence an exception to the
+bold creature?
+
+Tell her, said my mother to Betty, she knows upon what terms she may
+come down to us. Nor will I see her upon any other.
+
+The maid brought me this answer. I had recourse to my pen and ink; but
+I trembled so, that I could not write, nor knew what to say, had I
+steadier fingers. At last Betty brought me these lines from my father.
+
+
+UNDUTIFUL AND PERVERSE CLARISSA,
+
+No condescension, I see, will move you. Your mother shall not see you;
+nor will I. Prepare however to obey. You know our pleasure. Your uncle
+Antony, your brother, and your sister, and your favourite Mrs. Norton,
+shall see the ceremony performed privately at your uncle's chapel. And
+when Mr. Solmes can introduce you to us, in the temper we wish to behold
+you in, we may perhaps forgive his wife, although we never can, in
+any other character, our perverse daughter. As it will be so privately
+performed, clothes and equipage may be provided for afterwards. So
+prepare to go to your uncle's for an early day in next week. We will not
+see you till all is over: and we will have it over the sooner, in order
+to shorten the time of your deserved confinement, and our own trouble in
+contending with such a rebel, as you have been of late. I will hear no
+pleas, I will receive no letter, nor expostulation. Nor shall you hear
+from me any more till you have changed your name to my liking. This from
+
+Your incensed Father.
+
+
+If this resolution be adhered to, then will my father never see me
+more!--For I will never be the wife of that Solmes--I will die first--!
+
+
+TUESDAY EVENING.
+
+
+He, this Solmes, came hither soon after I had received my father's
+letter. He sent up to beg leave to wait upon me--I wonder at his
+assurance--!
+
+I said to Betty, who brought me this message, let him restore an unhappy
+creature to her father and mother, and then I may hear what he has to
+say. But, if my friends will not see me on his account, I will not see
+him upon his own.
+
+I hope, Miss, said Betty, you will not send me down with this answer. He
+is with you papa and mamma.
+
+I am driven to despair, said I. I cannot be used worse. I will not see
+him.
+
+Down she went with my answer. She pretended, it seems, to be loth to
+repeat it: so was commanded out of her affected reserves, and gave it in
+its full force.
+
+O how I heard my father storm!
+
+They were altogether, it seems, in his study. My brother was for
+having me turned out of the house that moment, to Lovelace, and my evil
+destiny. My mother was pleased to put in a gentle word for me: I know
+not what it was: but thus she was answered--My dear, this is the most
+provoking thing in the world in a woman of your good sense!--To love a
+rebel, as well as if she were dutiful. What encouragement for duty
+is this?--Have I not loved her as well as ever you did? And why am I
+changed! Would to the Lord, your sex knew how to distinguish! It is
+plain, that she relies upon her power over you. The fond mother ever
+made a hardened child!
+
+She was pleased, however, to blame Betty, as the wench owned, for giving
+my answer its full force. But my father praised her for it.
+
+The wench says, that he would have come up in his wrath, at my refusing
+to see Mr. Solmes, had not my brother and sister prevailed upon him to
+the contrary.
+
+I wish he had!--And, were it not for his own sake, that he had killed
+me!
+
+Mr. Solmes condescended [I am mightily obliged to him truly!] to plead
+for me.
+
+They are all in tumults! How it will end, I know not--I am quite weary
+of life--So happy, till within these few weeks!--So miserable now!
+
+Well, indeed, might my mother say, that I should have severe trials.*
+
+
+* See Letter XXV.
+
+
+P.S. The idiot [such a one am I treated like!] is begged, as I may say,
+by my brother and sister. They have desired, that I may be consigned
+over entirely to their management. If it be granted, [it is granted,
+on my father's part, I understand, but not yet on my mother's,] what
+cruelty may I not expect from their envy, jealousy, and ill-will!--I
+shall soon see, by its effects, if I am to be so consigned. This is a
+written intimation privately dropt in my wood-house walk, by my cousin
+Dolly Hervey. The dear girl longs to see me, she tells me: but is
+forbidden till she see me as Mrs. Solmes, or as consenting to be his. I
+will take example by their perseverance!--Indeed I will--!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE
+
+
+An angry dialogue, a scolding-bout rather, has passed between my sister
+and me. Did you think I could scold, my dear?
+
+She was sent up to me, upon my refusal to see Mr. Solmes--let loose
+upon me, I think!--No intention on their parts to conciliate! It seems
+evident that I am given up to my brother and her, by general consent.
+
+I will do justice to every thing she said against me, which carried any
+force with it. As I ask for your approbation or disapprobation of my
+conduct, upon the facts I lay before you, I should think it the sign of
+a very bad cause, if I endeavoured to mislead my judge.
+
+She began with representing to me the danger I had been in, had my
+father come up, as he would have done had he not been hindered--by
+Mr. Solmes, among the rest. She reflected upon my Norton, as if she
+encouraged me in my perverseness. She ridiculed me for my supposed
+esteem for Mr. Lovelace--was surprised that the witty, the prudent, nay,
+the dutiful and pi--ous [so she sneeringly pronounced the word] Clarissa
+Harlowe, should be so strangely fond of a profligate man, that her
+parents were forced to lock her up, in order to hinder her from running
+into his arms. 'Let me ask you, my dear, said she, how you now keep
+your account of the disposition of your time? How many hours in the
+twenty-four do you devote to your needle? How many to your prayers?
+How many to letter-writing? And how many to love?--I doubt, I doubt, my
+little dear, was her arch expression, the latter article is like Aaron's
+rod, and swallows up the rest!--Tell me; is it not so?'
+
+To these I answered, That it was a double mortification to me to owe
+my safety from the effects of my father's indignation to a man I could
+never thank for any thing. I vindicated the good Mrs. Norton with a
+warmth that was due to her merit. With equal warmth I resented her
+reflections upon me on Mr. Lovelace's account. As to the disposition of
+my time in the twenty-four hours, I told her it would better have become
+her to pity a sister in distress, than to exult over her--especially,
+when I could too justly attribute to the disposition of some of her
+wakeful hours no small part of that distress.
+
+She raved extremely at this last hint: but reminded me of the gentle
+treatment of all my friends, my mother's in particular, before it
+came to this. She said, that I had discovered a spirit they never had
+expected: that, if they had thought me such a championess, they would
+hardly have ventured to engage with me: but that now, the short and the
+long of it was, that the matter had gone too far to be given up: that it
+was become a contention between duty and willfulness; whether a parent's
+authority were to yield to a daughter's obstinacy, or the contrary: that
+I must therefore bend or break, that was all, child.
+
+I told her, that I wished the subject were of such a nature, that I
+could return her pleasantry with equal lightness of heart: but that, if
+Mr. Solmes had such merit in every body's eyes, in hers, particularly,
+why might he not be a brother to me, rather than a husband?
+
+O child, says she, methinks you are as pleasant to the full as I am:
+I begin to have some hopes of you now. But do you think I will rob my
+sister of her humble servant? Had he first addressed himself to me,
+proceeded she, something might have been said: but to take my younger
+sister's refusal! No, no, child; it is not come to that neither!
+Besides, that would be to leave the door open in your heart for you know
+who, child; and we would fain bar him out, if possible. In short [and
+then she changed both her tone and her looks] had I been as forward
+as somebody, to throw myself into the arms of one of the greatest
+profligates in England, who had endeavoured to support his claim to me
+through the blood of my brother, then might all my family join together
+to save me from such a wretch, and to marry me as fast as they could,
+to some worthy man, who might opportunely offer himself. And now, Clary,
+all's out, and make the most of it.
+
+Did not this deserve a severe return? Do, say it did, to justify my
+reply.--Alas! for my poor sister! said I--The man was not always so
+great a profligate. How true is the observation, That unrequited love
+turns to deepest hate!
+
+I thought she would beat me. But I proceeded--I have heard often of my
+brother's danger, and my brother's murderer. When so little ceremony is
+made with me, why should I not speak out?--Did he not seek to kill the
+other, if he could have done it? Would my brother have given Lovelace
+his life, had it been in his power?--The aggressor should not
+complain.--And, as to opportune offers, would to Heaven some one
+had offered opportunely to somebody! It is not my fault, Bella, the
+opportune gentleman don't come!
+
+Could you, my dear, have shewn more spirit? I expected to feel the
+weight of her hand. She did come up to me, with it held up: then,
+speechless with passion, ran half way down the stairs, and came up
+again.
+
+When she could speak--God give me patience with you!
+
+Amen, said I: but you see, Bella, how ill you bear the retort you
+provoke. Will you forgive me; and let me find a sister in you, as I am
+sorry, if you had reason to think me unsisterly in what I have said?
+
+Then did she pour upon me, with greater violence; considering my
+gentleness as a triumph of temper over her. She was resolved, she said,
+to let every body know how I took the wicked Lovelace's part against my
+brother.
+
+I wished, I told her, I could make the plea for myself, which she
+might for herself; to wit, that my anger was more inexcusable than my
+judgment. But I presumed she had some other view in coming to me, than
+she had hitherto acquainted me with. Let me, said I, but know (after
+all that has passed) if you have any thing to propose that I can comply
+with; any thing that can make my only sister once more my friend?
+
+I had before, upon hearing her ridiculing me on my supposed character of
+meekness, said, that, although I wished to be thought meek, I would not
+be abject; although humble not mean: and here, in a sneering way, she
+cautioned me on that head.
+
+I replied, that her pleasantry was much more agreeable than her anger.
+But I wished she would let me know the end of a visit that had hitherto
+(between us) been so unsisterly.
+
+She desired to be informed, in the name of every body, was her word,
+what I was determined upon? And whether to comply or not?--One word for
+all: My friends were not to have patience with so perverse a creature
+for ever.
+
+This then I told her I would do: Absolutely break with the man they were
+all so determined against: upon condition, however, that neither Mr.
+Solmes, nor any other, were urged upon me with the force of a command.
+
+And what was this, more than I had offered before? What, but ringing
+my changes upon the same bells, and neither receding nor advancing one
+tittle?
+
+If I knew what other proposals I could make, I told her, that would
+be acceptable to them all, and free me from the address of a man so
+disagreeable to me, I would make them. I had indeed before offered,
+never to marry without my father's consent--
+
+She interrupted me, That was because I depended upon my whining tricks
+to bring my father and mother to what I pleased.
+
+A poor dependence! I said:--She knew those who would make that
+dependence vain--
+
+And I should have brought them to my own beck, very probably, and my
+uncle Harlowe too, as also my aunt Hervey, had I not been forbidden from
+their sight, and thereby hindered from playing my pug's tricks before
+them.
+
+At least, Bella, said I, you have hinted to me to whom I am obliged,
+that my father and mother, and every body else, treat me thus harshly.
+But surely you make them all very weak. Indifferent persons, judging of
+us two from what you say, would either think me a very artful creature,
+or you a very spiteful one--
+
+You are indeed a very artful one, for that matter, interrupted she in
+a passion: one of the artfullest I ever knew! And then followed an
+accusation so low! so unsisterly!--That I half-bewitched people by my
+insinuating address: that nobody could be valued or respected, but must
+stand like ciphers wherever I came. How often, said she, have I and my
+brother been talking upon a subject, and had every body's attention,
+till you came in, with your bewitching meek pride, and humble
+significance? And then have we either been stopped by references to Miss
+Clary's opinion, forsooth; or been forced to stop ourselves, or must
+have talked on unattended to by every body.
+
+She paused. Dear Bella, proceed!
+
+She indeed seemed only gathering breath.
+
+And so I will, said she--Did you not bewitch my grandfather? Could any
+thing be pleasing to him, that you did not say or do? How did he use
+to hang, till he slabbered again, poor doting old man! on your silver
+tongue! Yet what did you say, that we could not have said? What did you
+do, that we did not endeavour to do?--And what was all this for? Why,
+truly, his last will shewed what effect your smooth obligingness had
+upon him!--To leave the acquired part of his estate from the next heirs,
+his own sons, to a grandchild; to his youngest grandchild! A daughter
+too!--To leave the family-pictures from his sons to you, because you
+could tiddle about them, and, though you now neglect their examples,
+could wipe and clean them with your dainty hands! The family-plate too,
+in such quantities, of two or three generations standing, must not be
+changed, because his precious child,* humouring his old fal-lal taste,
+admired it, to make it all her own.
+
+
+     * Alluding to his words in the preamble to the clauses in
+     his will. See Letter IV.
+
+
+This was too low to move me: O my poor sister! said I: not to be able,
+or at least willing, to distinguish between art and nature! If I did
+oblige, I was happy in it: I looked for no further reward: my mind is
+above art, from the dirty motives you mention. I wish with all my heart
+my grandfather had not thus distinguished me; he saw my brother likely
+to be amply provided for out of the family, as well as in it: he desired
+that you might have the greater share of my father's favour for it;
+and no doubt but you both have. You know, Bella, that the estate my
+grandfather bequeathed me was not half the real estate he left.
+
+What's all that to an estate in possession, and left you with such
+distinctions, as gave you a reputation of greater value than the estate
+itself?
+
+Hence my misfortune, Bella, in your envy, I doubt!--But have I not given
+up that possession in the best manner I could--
+
+Yes, interrupting me, she hated me for that best manner. Specious little
+witch! she called me: your best manner, so full of art and design, had
+never been seen through, if you, with your blandishing ways, have not
+been put out of sight, and reduced to positive declarations!--Hindered
+from playing your little declarations!--Hindered from playing your
+little whining tricks! curling, like a serpent about your mamma; and
+making her cry to deny you any thing your little obstinate heart was set
+upon--!
+
+Obstinate heart, Bella!
+
+Yes, obstinate heart! For did you ever give up any thing? Had you not
+the art to make them think all was right you asked, though my brother
+and I were frequently refused favours of no greater import!
+
+I know not, Bella, that I ever asked any thing unfit to be granted. I
+seldom asked favours for myself, but for others.
+
+I was a reflecting creature for this.
+
+All you speak of, Bella, was a long time ago. I cannot go so far back
+into our childish follies. Little did I think of how long standing your
+late-shewn antipathy is.
+
+I was a reflector again! Such a saucy meekness; such a best manner; and
+such venom in words!--O Clary! Clary! Thou wert always a two-faced girl!
+
+Nobody thought I had two faces, when I gave up all into my father's
+management; taking from his bounty, as before, all my little
+pocket-money, without a shilling addition to my stipend, or desiring
+it--
+
+Yes, cunning creature!--And that was another of your fetches!--For did
+it not engage my fond father (as no doubt you thought it would) to tell
+you, that since you had done so grateful and dutiful a thing, he would
+keep entire, for your use, all the produce of the estate left you, and
+be but your steward in it; and that you should be entitled to the same
+allowances as before? Another of your hook-in's, Clary!--So that all
+your extravagancies have been supported gratis.
+
+My extravagancies, Bella!--But did my father ever give me any thing he
+did not give you?
+
+Yes, indeed; I got more by that means, than I should have had the
+conscience to ask. But I have still the greater part to shew! But you!
+What have you to shew?--I dare say, not fifty pieces in the world!
+
+Indeed I have not!
+
+I believe you!--Your mamma Norton, I suppose--But mum for that--!
+
+Unworthy Bella! The good woman, although low in circumstance, is great
+in mind! Much greater than those who would impute meanness to a soul
+incapable of it.
+
+What then have you done with the sums given you from infancy to
+squander?--Let me ask you [affecting archness], Has, has, has Lovelace,
+has your rake, put it out at interest for you?
+
+O that my sister would not make me blush for her! It is, however, out at
+interest!--And I hope it will bring me interest upon interest!--Better
+than to lie useless in my cabinet.
+
+She understood me, she said. Were I a man, she should suppose I was
+aiming to carry the county--Popularity! A crowd to follow me with their
+blessings as I went to and from church, and nobody else to be regarded,
+were agreeable things. House-top-proclamations! I hid not my light under
+a bushel, she would say that for me. But was it not a little hard upon
+me, to be kept from blazing on a Sunday?--And to be hindered from my
+charitable ostentations?
+
+This, indeed, Bella, is cruel in you, who have so largely contributed to
+my confinement.--But go on. You'll be out of breath by-and-by. I cannot
+wish to be able to return this usage.--Poor Bella! And I believe I
+smiled a little too contemptuously for a sister to a sister.
+
+None of your saucy contempts [rising in her voice]: None of your poor
+Bella's, with that air of superiority in a younger sister!
+
+Well then, rich Bella! courtesying--that will please you better--and it
+is due likewise to the hoards you boast of.
+
+Look ye, Clary, holding up her hand, if you are not a little more abject
+in your meekness, a little more mean in your humility, and treat me with
+the respect due to an elder sister--you shall find--
+
+Not that you will treat me worse than you have done, Bella!--That cannot
+be; unless you were to let fall your uplifted hand upon me--and that
+would less become you to do, than me to bear.
+
+Good, meek creature:--But you were upon your overtures just now!--I
+shall surprise every body by tarrying so long. They will think some good
+may be done with you--and supper will be ready.
+
+A tear would stray down my cheek--How happy have I been, said I,
+sighing, in the supper-time conversations, with all my dear friends in
+my eye round their hospitable board.
+
+I met only with insult for this--Bella has not a feeling heart. The
+highest joy in this life she is not capable of: but then she saves
+herself many griefs, by her impenetrableness--yet, for ten times the
+pain that such a sensibility is attended with, would I not part with the
+pleasure it brings with it.
+
+She asked me, upon my turning from her, if she should not say any thing
+below of my compliances?
+
+You may say, that I will do every thing they would have me do, if they
+will free me from Mr. Solmes's address.
+
+This is all you desire at present, creeper on! insinuator! [What words
+she has!] But will not t'other man flame out, and roar most horribly,
+upon the snatching from his paws a prey he thought himself sure of?
+
+I must let you talk in your own way, or we shall never come to a point.
+I shall not matter in his roaring, as you call it. I will promise him,
+that, if I ever marry any other man, it shall not be till he is married.
+And if he be not satisfied with such a condescension, I shall think he
+ought: and I will give any assurances, that I will neither correspond
+with him, nor see him. Surely this will do.
+
+But I suppose then you will have no objection to see and converse, on a
+civil footing, with Mr. Solmes--as your father's friend, or so?
+
+No! I must be permitted to retire to my apartment whenever he comes.
+I would no more converse with the one, than correspond with the other.
+That would be to make Mr. Lovelace guilty of some rashness, on a belief,
+that I broke with him, to have Mr. Solmes.
+
+And so, that wicked wretch is to be allowed such a controul over you,
+that you are not to be civil to your father's friends, at his own house,
+for fear of incensing him!--When this comes to be represented, be so
+good as to tell me, what is it you expect from it!
+
+Every thing, I said, or nothing, as she was pleased to represent it.--Be
+so good as to give it your interest, Bella, and say, further, 'That
+I will by any means I can, in the law or otherwise, make over to my
+father, to my uncles, or even to my brother, all I am entitled to by my
+grandfather's will, as a security for the performance of my promises.
+And as I shall have no reason to expect any favour from my father, if I
+break them, I shall not be worth any body's having. And further
+still, unkindly as my brother has used me, I will go down to Scotland
+privately, as his housekeeper [I now see I may be spared here] if he
+will promise to treat me no worse than he would do an hired one.--Or
+I will go to Florence, to my cousin Morden, if his stay in Italy will
+admit of it. In either case, it may be given out, that I am gone to the
+other; or to the world's end. I care not whither it is said I am gone,
+or do go.'
+
+Let me ask you, child, if you will give your pretty proposal in writing?
+
+Yes, with all my heart. And I stepped to my closet, and wrote to the
+purpose I have mentioned; and moreover, the following lines to my
+brother.
+
+
+MY DEAR BROTHER,
+
+I hope I have made such proposals to my sister as will be accepted. I am
+sure they will, if you please to give them your sanction. Let me beg
+of you, for God's sake, that you will. I think myself very unhappy in
+having incurred your displeasure. No sister can love a brother better
+than I love you. Pray do not put the worst but the best constructions
+upon my proposals, when you have them reported to you. Indeed I mean the
+best. I have no subterfuges, no arts, no intentions, but to keep to the
+letter of them. You shall yourself draw up every thing into writing, as
+strong as you can, and I will sign it: and what the law will not do to
+enforce it, my resolution and my will shall: so that I shall be worth
+nobody's address, that has not my papa's consent: nor shall any person,
+nor any consideration, induce me to revoke it. You can do more than any
+body to reconcile my parents and uncles to me. Let me owe this desirable
+favour to your brotherly interposition, and you will for ever oblige
+
+Your afflicted Sister, CL. HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+And how do you think Bella employed herself while I was writing?--Why,
+playing gently upon my harpsichord; and humming to it, to shew her
+unconcernedness.
+
+When I approached her with what I had written, she arose with an air
+of levity--Why, love, you have not written already!--You have, I
+protest!--O what a ready penwoman!--And may I read it?
+
+If you please. And let me beseech you, my dear Bella, to back these
+proposals with your good offices: and [folding my uplifted hands; tears,
+I believe, standing in my eyes] I will love you as never sister loved
+another.
+
+Thou art a strange creature, said she; there is no withstanding thee.
+
+She took the proposals and letter; and having read them, burst into an
+affected laugh: How wise ones may be taken in!--Then you did not know,
+that I was jesting with you all this time!--And so you would have me
+carry down this pretty piece of nonsense?
+
+Don't let me be surprised at your seeming unsisterliness, Bella. I hope
+it is but seeming. There can be no wit in such jesting as this.
+
+The folly of the creature!--How natural is it for people, when they set
+their hearts upon any thing, to think every body must see with their
+eyes!--Pray, dear child, what becomes of your father's authority
+here?--Who stoops here, the parent, or the child?--How does this square
+with engagements actually agreed upon between your father and Mr.
+Solmes? What security, that your rake will not follow you to the world's
+end?--Nevertheless, that you may not think that I stand in the way of
+a reconciliation on such fine terms as these, I will be your messenger
+this once, and hear what my papa will say to it; although beforehand I
+can tell you, these proposals will not answer the principal end.
+
+So down she went. But, it seems, my aunt Hervey and my uncle Harlowe
+were not gone away: and as they have all engaged to act in concert,
+messengers were dispatched to my uncle and aunt to desire them to be
+there to breakfast in the morning.
+
+
+MONDAY NIGHT, ELEVEN O'CLOCK.
+
+
+I am afraid I shall not be thought worthy--
+
+Just as I began to fear I should not be thought worthy of an answer,
+Betty rapped at my door, and said, if I were not in bed, she had a
+letter for me. I had but just done writing the above dialogue, and stept
+to the door with the pen in my hand--Always writing, Miss! said the
+bold wench: it is admirable how you can get away what you write--but the
+fairies, they say, are always at hand to help lovers.--She retired in
+so much haste, that, had I been disposed, I could not take the notice of
+this insolence which it deserved.
+
+I enclose my brother's letter. He was resolved to let me see, that I
+should have nothing to expect from his kindness. But surely he will
+not be permitted to carry every point. The assembling of my friends
+to-morrow is a good sign: and I will hope something from that, and from
+proposals so reasonable. And now I will try if any repose will fall to
+my lot for the remainder of this night.
+
+
+TO MISS CLARY HARLOWE [ENCLOSED IN THE PRECEDING.]
+
+Your proposals will be considered by your father and mother, and
+all your friends, to-morrow morning. What trouble does your shameful
+forwardness give us all! I wonder you have the courage to write to me,
+upon whom you are so continually emptying your whole female quiver. I
+have no patience with you, for reflecting upon me as the aggressor in a
+quarrel which owed its beginning to my consideration for you.
+
+You have made such confessions in a villain's favour, as ought to cause
+all your relations to renounce you for ever. For my part, I will
+not believe any woman in the world, who promises against her avowed
+inclination. To put it out of your power to ruin yourself is the only
+way left to prevent your ruin. I did not intend to write; but your
+too-kind sister has prevailed upon me. As to your going to Scotland,
+that day of grace is over.--Nor would I advise, that you should go to
+grandfather-up your cousin Morden. Besides, that worthy gentleman might
+be involved in some fatal dispute, upon your account; and then be called
+the aggressor.
+
+A fine situation you have brought yourself to, to propose to hide
+yourself from your rake, and to have falsehoods told, to conceal
+you!--Your confinement, at this rate, is the happiest thing that could
+befal you. Your bravo's behaviour at church, looking out for you, is a
+sufficient indication of his power over you, had you not so shamelessly
+acknowledged it.
+
+One word for all--Your parents and uncles may do as they will: but if,
+for the honour of the family, I cannot carry this point, I will retire
+to Scotland, and never see the face of any one of it more.
+
+JAMES HARLOWE.
+
+
+***
+
+
+There's a brother!--There's flaming duty to a father, and mother, and
+uncles!--But he sees himself valued, and made of consequence; and he
+gives himself airs accordingly!--Nevertheless, as I said above, I will
+hope better things from those who have not the interest my brother has
+to keep open these unhappy differences.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE TUESDAY, MARCH 21.
+
+
+Would you not have thought, my dear Miss Howe, as well as I, that my
+proposal must have been accepted: and that my brother, by the last
+article of his unbrotherly letter (where he threatens to go to Scotland
+if it should be hearkened to) was of opinion that it would.
+
+For my part, after I had read the unkind letter over and over,
+I concluded, upon the whole, that a reconciliation upon terms so
+disadvantageous to myself, as hardly any other person in my case, I
+dare say, would have proposed, must be the result of this morning's
+conference. And in that belief I had begun to give myself new trouble in
+thinking (this difficulty over) how I should be able to pacify Lovelace
+on that part of my engagement, by which I undertook to break off all
+correspondence with him, unless my friends should be brought, by the
+interposition of his powerful friends, and any offers they might make,
+(which it was rather his part to suggest, than mine to intimate,) to
+change their minds.
+
+Thus was I employed, not very agreeably, you may believe, because of the
+vehemence of the tempers I had to conflict with; when breakfasting-time
+approached, and my judges began to arrive.
+
+And oh! how my heart fluttered on hearing the chariot of the one,
+and then of the other, rattle through the court-yard, and the
+hollow-sounding foot-step giving notice of each person's stepping out,
+to take his place on the awful bench which my fancy had formed for them
+and my other judges!
+
+That, thought I, is my aunt Hervey's! That my uncle Harlowe's! Now comes
+my uncle Antony! And my imagination made a fourth chariot for the odious
+Solmes, although it happened he was not there.
+
+And now, thought I, are they all assembled: and now my brother calls
+upon my sister to make her report! Now the hard-hearted Bella interlards
+her speech with invective! Now has she concluded her report! Now they
+debate upon it!--Now does my brother flame! Now threaten to go to
+Scotland! Now is he chidden, and now soothed!
+
+And then I ran through the whole conference in my imagination, forming
+speeches for this person and that, pro and con, till all concluded, as
+I flattered myself, in an acceptance of my conditions, and in giving
+directions to have an instrument drawn to tie me up to my good
+behaviour; while I supposed all agreed to give Solmes a wife every way
+more worthy of him, and with her the promise of my grandfather's estate,
+in case of my forfeiture, or dying unmarried, on the righteous condition
+he proposes to entitle himself to it with me.
+
+And now, thought I, am I to be ordered down to recognize my own
+proposals. And how shall I look upon my awful judges? How shall I stand
+the questions of some, the set surliness of others, the returning love
+of one or two? How greatly shall I be affected!
+
+Then I wept: then I dried my eyes: then I practised at my glass for a
+look more cheerful than my heart.
+
+And now [as any thing stirred] is my sister coming to declare the issue
+of all! Tears gushing again, my heart fluttering as a bird against its
+wires; drying my eyes again and again to no purpose.
+
+And thus, my Nancy, [excuse the fanciful prolixity,] was I employed, and
+such were my thoughts and imaginations, when I found a very different
+result from the hopeful conference.
+
+For about ten o'clock up came my sister, with an air of cruel triumph,
+waving her hand with a light flourish--
+
+Obedience without reserve is required of you, Clary. My papa is justly
+incensed, that you should presume to dispute his will, and to make
+conditions with him. He knows what is best for you: and as you own
+matters are gone a great way between this hated Lovelace and you,
+they will believe nothing you say; except you will give the one only
+instance, that will put them out of doubt of the sincerity of your
+promises.
+
+What, child, are you surprised?--Cannot you speak?--Then, it seems, you
+had expected a different issue, had you?--Strange that you could!--With
+all your acknowledgements and confessions, so creditable to your noted
+prudence--!
+
+I was indeed speechless for some time: my eyes were even fixed, and
+ceased to flow. But upon the hard-hearted Bella's proceeding with her
+airs of insult, Indeed I was mistaken, said I; indeed I was!----For in
+you, Bella, I expected, I hoped for, a sister--
+
+What! interrupted she, with all your mannerly flings, and your despising
+airs, did you expect that I was capable of telling stories for you?--Did
+you think, that when I was asked my own opinion of the sincerity of your
+declarations, I could not tell tem, how far matters had gone between you
+and your fellow?--When the intention is to bend that stubborn will of
+yours to your duty, do you think I would deceive them?--Do you think I
+would encourage them to call you down, to contradict all that I should
+have invented in your favour?
+
+Well, well, Bella; I am the less obliged to you; that's all. I was
+willing to think that I had still a brother and sister. But I find I am
+mistaken.
+
+Pretty mopsy-eyed soul!--was her expression!--And was it willing to
+think it had still a brother and sister? And why don't you go on, Clary?
+[mocking my half-weeping accent] I thought I had a father, and mother,
+two uncles, and an aunt: but I am mis--taken, that's all--come, Clary,
+say this, and it will in part be true, because you have thrown off all
+their authority, and because you respect one vile wretch more than them
+all.
+
+How have I deserved this at your hands, Sister?--But I will only say, I
+pity you.
+
+And with that disdainful air too, Clary!--None of that bridled neck!
+none of your scornful pity, girl!--I beseech you!
+
+This sort of behaviour is natural to you, surely, Bella!--What new
+talents does it discover in you!--But proceed--If it be a pleasure to
+you, proceed, Bella. And since I must not pity you, I will pity myself:
+for nobody else will.
+
+Because you don't, said she--
+
+Hush, Bella, interrupting her, because I don't deserve it--I know you
+were going to say so. I will say as you say in every thing; and that's
+the way to please you.
+
+Then say, Lovelace is a villain.
+
+So I will, when I think him so.
+
+Then you don't think him so?
+
+Indeed I don't. You did not always, Bella.
+
+And what, Clary, mean you by that? [bristling up to me]--Tell me what
+you mean by that reflection?
+
+Tell me why you call it a reflection?--What did I say?
+
+Thou art a provoking creature--But what say you to two or three duels of
+that wretch's?
+
+I can't tell what to say, unless I knew the occasions.
+
+Do you justify duelling at all?
+
+I do not: neither can I help his duelling.
+
+Will you go down, and humble that stubborn spirit of yours to your
+mamma?
+
+I said nothing.
+
+Shall I conduct your Ladyship down? [offering to take my declined hand].
+
+What! not vouchsafe to answer me?
+
+I turned from her in silence.
+
+What! turn your back upon me too!--Shall I bring up your mamma to you,
+love? [following me, and taking my struggling hand] What? not speak yet!
+Come, my sullen, silent dear, speak one word to me--you must say two
+very soon to Mr. Solmes, I can tell you that.
+
+Then [gushing into tears, which I could not hold in longer] they shall
+be the last words I will ever speak.
+
+Well, well, [insultingly wiping my averted face with her handkerchief,
+while her other hand held mine, in a ridiculing tone,] I am glad any
+thing will make thee speak: then you think you may be brought to speak
+the two words--only they are to be the last!--How like a gentle lovyer
+from its tender bleeding heart was that!
+
+Ridiculous Bella!
+
+Saucy Clary! [changing her sneering tone to an imperious one] But do you
+think you can humble yourself to go down to your mamma?
+
+I am tired of such stuff as this. Tell me, Bella, if my mamma will
+condescend to see me?
+
+Yes, if you can be dutiful at last.
+
+I can. I will.
+
+But what call you dutiful?
+
+To give up my own inclinations--That's something more for you to tell
+of--in obedience to my parents' commands; and to beg that I may not be
+made miserable with a man that is fitter for any body than for me.
+
+For me, do you mean, Clary?
+
+Why not? since you have put the question. You have a better opinion of
+him than I have. My friends, I hope, would not think him too good for
+me, and not good enough for you. But cannot you tell me, Bella, what
+is to become of me, without insulting over me thus?--If I must be thus
+treated, remember, that if I am guilty of any rashness, the usage I meet
+with will justify it.
+
+So, Clary, you are contriving an excuse, I find, for somewhat that we
+have not doubted has been in your head a great while.
+
+If it were so, you seem resolved, for your part, and so does my brother
+for his, that I shall not want one.--But indeed, Bella, I can bear no
+longer this repetition of the worst part of yesterday's conversation:
+I desire I may throw myself at my father's and mother's feet, and hear
+from them what their sentence is. I shall at least avoid, by that means,
+the unsisterly insults I meet with from you.
+
+Hey-day! What, is this you? Is it you, my meek sister Clary?
+
+Yes, it is I, Bella; and I will claim the protection due to a child of
+the family, or to know why I am to be thus treated, when I offer only to
+preserve to myself the liberty of refusal, which belongs to my sex; and,
+to please my parents, would give up my choice. I have contented myself
+till now to take second-hand messengers, and first-hand insults: you are
+but my sister: my brother is not my sovereign. And while I have a father
+and mother living, I will not be thus treated by a brother and sister,
+and their servants, all setting upon me, as it should seem, to make me
+desperate, and do a rash thing.--I will know, in short, sister Bella,
+why I am to be constrained thus?--What is intended by it?--And whether I
+am to be considered as a child or a slave?
+
+She stood aghast all this time, partly with real, partly with affected,
+surprise.
+
+And is it you? Is it indeed you?--Well, Clary, you amaze me! But since
+you are so desirous to refer yourself to your father and mother, I will
+go down, and tell them what you say. Your friends are not yet gone,
+I believe: they shall assemble again; and then you may come down, and
+plead your own cause in person.
+
+Let me then. But let my brother and you be absent. You have made
+yourselves too much parties against me, to sit as my judges. And I
+desire to have none of yours or his interpositions. I am sure you could
+not have represented what I proposed fairly: I am sure you could not.
+Nor is it possible you should be commissioned to treat me thus.
+
+Well, well, I'll call up my brother to you.--I will indeed.--He shall
+justify himself, as well as me.
+
+I desire not to see my brother, except he will come as a brother, laying
+aside the authority he has unjustly assumed over me.
+
+And so, Clary, it is nothing to him, or to me, is it, that our sister
+shall disgrace her whole family?
+
+As how, Bella, disgrace it?--The man whom you thus freely treat, is a
+man of birth and fortune: he is a man of parts, and nobly allied.--He
+was once thought worthy of you: and I wish to Heaven you had had him.
+I am sure it was not thus my fault you had not, although you treat me
+thus.
+
+This set her into a flame: I wish I had forborne it. O how the poor
+Bella raved! I thought she would have beat me once or twice: and she
+vowed her fingers itched to do so--but I was not worth her anger: yet
+she flamed on.
+
+We were heard to be high.--And Betty came up from my mother to command
+my sister to attend her.--She went down accordingly, threatening me with
+letting every one know what a violent creature I had shewn myself to be.
+
+
+TUESDAY NOON, MARCH 21.
+
+
+I have as yet heard no more of my sister: and have not courage enough
+to insist upon throwing myself at the feet of my father and mother, as I
+thought in my heat of temper I should be able to do. And I am now grown
+as calm as ever; and were Bella to come up again, as fit to be played
+upon as before.
+
+I am indeed sorry that I sent her from me in such disorder. But my
+papa's letter threatening me with my uncle Antony's house and chapel,
+terrifies me strangely; and by their silence I'm afraid some new storm
+is gathering.
+
+But what shall I do with this Lovelace? I have just now, but the
+unsuspected hole in the wall (that I told you of in my letter by Hannah)
+got a letter from him--so uneasy is he for fear I should be prevailed
+upon in Solmes's favour; so full of menaces, if I am; so resenting
+the usage I receive [for, how I cannot tell, but he has undoubtedly
+intelligence of all that is done in the family]; such protestations of
+inviolable faith and honour; such vows of reformation; such pressing
+arguments to escape from this disgraceful confinement--O my Nancy, what
+shall I do with this Lovelace?--
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV
+
+MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WENESDAY MORNING, NINE O'CLOCK.
+
+
+My aunt Hervey lay here last night, and is but just gone from me. She
+came up to me with my sister. They would not trust my aunt without this
+ill-natured witness. When she entered my chamber, I told her, that this
+visit was a high favour to a poor prisoner, in her hard confinement.
+I kissed her hand. She, kindly saluting me, said, Why this distance to
+your aunt, my dear, who loves you so well?
+
+She owned, that she came to expostulate with me, for the peace-sake of
+the family: for that she could not believe it possible, if I did not
+conceive myself unkindly treated, that I, who had ever shewn such a
+sweetness of temper, as well as manners, should be thus resolute, in a
+point so very near to my father, and all my friends. My mother and she
+were both willing to impute my resolution to the manner I had been begun
+with; and to my supposing that my brother had originally more of a hand
+in the proposals made by Mr. Solmes, than my father or other friends. In
+short, fain would my aunt have furnished me with an excuse to come off
+my opposition; Bell all the while humming a tune, and opening this book
+and that, without meaning; but saying nothing.
+
+After having shewed me, that my opposition could not be of
+signification, my father's honour being engaged, my aunt concluded with
+enforcing upon me my duty, in stronger terms than I believe she would
+have done, (the circumstances of the case considered), had not my sister
+been present.
+
+It would be repeating what I have so often mentioned, to give you the
+arguments that passed on both sides.--So I will only recite what she was
+pleased to say, that carried with it a new face.
+
+When she found me inflexible, as she was pleased to call it, she said,
+For her part, she could not but say, that if I were not to have either
+Mr. Solmes or Mr. Lovelace, and yet, to make my friends easy, must
+marry, she should not think amiss of Mr. Wyerley. What did I think of
+Mr. Wyerley?
+
+Ay, Clary, put in my sister, what say you to Mr. Wyerley?
+
+I saw through this immediately. It was said on purpose, I doubted
+not, to have an argument against me of absolute prepossession in Mr.
+Lovelace's favour: since Mr. Wyerley every where avows his value, even
+to veneration, for me; and is far less exceptionable both in person and
+mind, than Mr. Solmes: and I was willing to turn the tables, by trying
+how far Mr. Solmes's terms might be dispensed with; since the same terms
+could not be expected from Mr. Wyerley.
+
+I therefore desired to know, whether my answer, if it should be in
+favour of Mr. Wyerley, would release me from Mr. Solmes?--For I owned,
+that I had not the aversion to him, that I had to the other.
+
+Nay, she had no commission to propose such a thing. She only knew, that
+my father and mother would not be easy till Mr. Lovelace's hopes were
+entirely defeated.
+
+Cunning creature! said my sister.
+
+And this, and her joining in the question before, convinced me, that it
+was a designed snare for me.
+
+Don't you, dear Madam, said I, put questions that can answer no end, but
+to support my brother's schemes against me.--But are there any hopes
+of an end to my sufferings and disgrace, without having this hated man
+imposed upon me? Will not what I have offered be accepted? I am sure it
+ought--I will venture to say that.
+
+Why, Niece, if there be not any such hopes, I presume you don't think
+yourself absolved from the duty due from a child to her parents?
+
+Yes, said my sister, I do not doubt but it is Miss Clary's aim, if she
+does not fly to her Lovelace, to get her estate into her own hands, and
+go to live at The Grove, in that independence upon which she builds all
+her perverseness. And, dear heart! my little love, how will you then
+blaze away! Your mamma Norton, your oracle, with your poor at your
+gates, mingling so proudly and so meanly with the ragged herd!
+Reflecting, by your ostentation, upon all the ladies in the county,
+who do not as you do. This is known to be your scheme! and the poor
+without-doors, and Lovelace within, with one hand building up a name,
+pulling it down with the other!--O what a charming scheme is this!--But
+let me tell you, my pretty little flighty one, that your father's living
+will shall controul your grandfather's dead one; and that estate will be
+disposed of as your fond grandfather would have disposed of it, had he
+lived to see such a change in his favourite. In a word, Miss, it will be
+kept out of your hands, till my father sees you discreet enough to have
+the management of it, or till you can dutifully, by law, tear it from
+him.
+
+Fie, Miss Harlowe! said my aunt: this is not pretty to your sister.
+
+O Madam, let her go on. This is nothing to what I have borne from Miss
+Harlowe. She is either commissioned to treat me ill by her envy, or by
+an higher authority, to which I must submit.--As to revoking the estate,
+what hinders, if I pleased? I know my power; but have not the least
+thought of exerting it. Be pleased to let my father know, that, whatever
+be the consequence to myself, were he to turn me out of doors, (which
+I should rather he would do, than to be confined and insulted as I am),
+and were I to be reduced to indigence and want, I would seek no relief
+that should be contrary to his will.
+
+For that matter, child, said my aunt, were you to marry, you must do as
+your husband will have you. If that husband be Mr. Lovelace, he will be
+glad of any opportunity of further embroiling the families. And, let
+me tell you, Niece, if he had the respect for you which he pretends to
+have, he would not throw out defiances as he does. He is known to be a
+very revengeful man; and were I you, Miss Clary, I should be afraid he
+would wreak upon me that vengeance, though I had not offended him, which
+he is continually threatening to pour upon the family.
+
+Mr. Lovelace's threatened vengeance is in return for threatened
+vengeance. It is not every body will bear insult, as, of late, I have
+been forced to bear it.
+
+O how my sister's face shone with passion!
+
+But Mr. Lovelace, proceeded I, as I have said twenty and twenty times,
+would be quite out of question with me, were I to be generously treated!
+
+My sister said something with great vehemence: but only raising my
+voice, to be heard, without minding her, Pray, Madam, (provokingly
+interrogated I), was he not known to have been as wild a man, when he
+was at first introduced into our family, as he now is said to be? Yet
+then, the common phrases of wild oats, and black oxen, and such-like,
+were qualifiers; and marriage, and the wife's discretion, were to
+perform wonders--but (turning to my sister) I find I have said too much.
+
+O thou wicked reflecter!--And what made me abhor him, think you, but
+the proof of those villainous freedoms that ought to have had the same
+effect upon you, were you but half so good a creature as you pretend to
+be?
+
+Proof, did you say, Bella! I thought you had not proof?--But you know
+best.
+
+Was not this very spiteful, my dear?
+
+Now, Clary, said she, would I give a thousand pounds to know all that is
+in thy little rancorous and reflecting heart at this moment.
+
+I might let you know for a much less sum, and not be afraid of being
+worse treated than I have been.
+
+Well, young ladies, I am sorry to see passion run so high between
+you. You know, Niece, (to me,) you had not been confined thus to
+your apartment, could your mother by condescension, or your father by
+authority, have been able to move you. But how can you expect, when
+there must be a concession on one side, that it should be on theirs?
+If my Dolly, who has not the hundredth part of your understanding, were
+thus to set herself up in absolute contradiction to my will, in a point
+so material, I should not take it well of her--indeed I should not.
+
+I believe not, Madam: and if Miss Hervey had just such a brother, and
+just such a sister [you may look, Bella!] and if both were to aggravate
+her parents, as my brother and sister do mine--then, perhaps, you might
+use her as I am used: and if she hated the man you proposed to her, and
+with as much reason as I do Mr. Solmes--
+
+And loved a rake and libertine, Miss, as you do Lovelace, said my
+sister--
+
+Then might she [continued I, not minding her,] beg to be excused from
+obeying. Yet if she did, and would give you the most solemn assurances,
+and security besides, that she would never have the man you disliked,
+against your consent--I dare say, Miss Hervey's father and mother would
+sit down satisfied, and not endeavour to force her inclinations.
+
+So!--[said my sister, with uplifted hands] father and mother now come in
+for their share!
+
+But if, child, replied my aunt, I knew she loved a rake, and suspected
+that she sought only to gain time, in order to wire-draw me into a
+consent--
+
+I beg pardon, Madam, for interrupting you; but if Miss Hervey could
+obtain your consent, what further would be said?
+
+True, child; but she never should.
+
+Then, Madam, it would never be.
+
+That I doubt, Niece.
+
+If you do, Madam, can you think confinement and ill usage is the way to
+prevent the apprehended rashness?
+
+My dear, this sort of intimation would make one but too apprehensive,
+that there is no trusting to yourself, when one knows your inclination.
+
+That apprehension, Madam, seems to have been conceived before this
+intimation, or the least cause for it, was given. Why else the
+disgraceful confinement I have been laid under?--Let me venture to say,
+that my sufferings seem to be rather owing to a concerted design to
+intimidate me [Bella held up her hands], (knowing there were too good
+grounds for my opposition,) than to a doubt of my conduct; for, when
+they were inflicted first, I had given no cause of doubt: nor should
+there now be room for any, if my discretion might be trusted to.
+
+My aunt, after a little hesitation, said, But, consider, my dear, what
+confusion will be perpetuated in your family, if you marry this hated
+Lovelace!
+
+And let it be considered, what misery to me, Madam, if I marry that
+hated Solmes!
+
+Many a young creature has thought she could not love a man, with whom
+she has afterwards been very happy. Few women, child, marry their first
+loves.
+
+That may be the reason there are so few happy marriages.
+
+But there are few first impressions fit to be encouraged.
+
+I am afraid so too, Madam. I have a very indifferent opinion of light
+and first impressions. But, as I have often said, all I wish for is, to
+have leave to live single.
+
+Indeed you must not, Miss. Your father and mother will be unhappy till
+they see you married, and out of Lovelace's reach. I am told that you
+propose to condition with him (so far are matters gone between you)
+never to have any man, if you have not him.
+
+I know no better way to prevent mischief on all sides, I freely own
+it--and there is not, if he be out of the question, another man in the
+world I can think favourably of. Nevertheless, I would give all I have
+in the world, that he were married to some other person--indeed I would,
+Bella, for all you put on that smile of incredulity.
+
+May be so, Clary: but I will smile for all that.
+
+If he be out of the question! repeated my aunt--So, Miss Clary, I see
+how it is--I will go down--[Miss Harlowe, shall I follow you?]--And I
+will endeavour to persuade your father to let my sister herself come up:
+and a happier event may then result.
+
+Depend upon it, Madam, said my sister, this will be the case: my mother
+and she will both be in tears; but with this different effect: my
+mother will come down softened, and cut to the heart; but will leave her
+favourite hardened, from the advantages she will think she has over my
+mother's tenderness--why, Madam, it is for this very reason the girl is
+not admitted into her presence.
+
+Thus she ran on, as she went downstairs.
+
+END OF VOL. 1
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9), by Samuel Richardson
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