Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 1

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

notes

1

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 diary-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.

2

See Mr. Lovelace's Letter, No. XXXI, in which he briefly accounts for his conduct in this affair.

3

See Letter VIII.

4

Letter V.

5

Letter III.

6

Letter IV.

7

Letters IV. and V.

8

See Letter IV.

9

See Letter IV.

10

Letter I.

11

Letter II.

12

Letter I.

13

See Letter IX.

14

See Letter X.

15

See Letter X.

16

See Letter V.

17

See Letter XXXI, for Mr. Lovelace's account of his behaviour and intentions in his appearance at church.

18

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.

19

Lovelace.

20

See Letter XX.

21

See Letter XXV.