Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 2
Page 6
LETTER V
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE THURSDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 23.
An unexpected visitor has turned the course of my thoughts, and changedthe subject I had intended to pursue. The only one for whom I would havedispensed with my resolution not to see any body all the dedicated day:a visiter, whom, according to Mr. Hickman's report from the expectationsof his libertine friends, I supposed to be in town.--Now, my dear, haveI saved myself the trouble of telling you, that it was you too-agreeablerake. Our sex is said to love to trade in surprises: yet have I, bymy promptitude, surprised myself out of mine. I had intended, you mustknow, to run twice the length, before I had suffered you to know so muchas to guess who, and whether man or woman, my visiter was: but since youhave the discovery at so cheap a rate, you are welcome to it.
The end of his coming was, to engage my interest with my charmingfriend; and he was sure that I knew all your mind, to acquaint him whathe had to trust to.
He mentioned what had passed in the interview between you: but could notbe satisfied with the result of it, and with the little satisfaction hehad obtained from you: the malice of your family to him increasing, andtheir cruelty to you not abating. His heart, he told me, was in tumults,for fear you should be prevailed upon in favour of a man despised byevery body.
He gave me fresh instance of indignities cast upon himself by youruncles and brother; and declared, that if you suffered yourself tobe forced into the arms of the man for whose sake he was loaded withundeserved abuses, you should be one of the youngest, as you would beone of the loveliest widows in England. And that he would moreover callyour brother to account for the liberties he takes with his character toevery one he meets with.
He proposed several schemes, for you to choose some one of them, inorder to enable you to avoid the persecutions you labour under: OneI will mention--That you will resume your estate; and if you finddifficulties that can be no otherwise surmounted, that you will, eitheravowedly or privately, as he had proposed to you, accept of Lady BettyLawrance's or Lord M.'s assistance to instate you in it. He declared,that if you did, he would leave absolutely to your own pleasureafterwards, and to the advice which your cousin Morden on his arrivalshould give you, whether to encourage his address, or not, as you shouldbe convinced of the sincerity of the reformation which his enemies makehim so much want.
I had now a good opportunity to sound him, as you wished Mr. Hickmanwould Lord M. as to the continued or diminished favour of the ladies,and of his Lordship, towards you, upon their being acquainted with theanimosity of your relations to them, as well as to their kinsman. I laidhold of the opportunity, and he satisfied me, by reading some passagesof a letter he had about him, from Lord M. That an alliance withyou, and that on the foot of your own single merit, would be the mostdesirable event to them that could happen: and so far to the purpose ofyour wished inquiry does his Lordship go in this letter, that he assureshim, that whatever you suffer in fortune from the violence of yourrelations on his account, he and Lady Sarah and Lady Betty will join tomake it up to him. And yet that the reputation of a family so splendid,would, no doubt, in a case of such importance to the honour of both,make them prefer a general consent.
I told him, as you yourself I knew had done, that you were extremelyaverse to Mr. Solmes; and that, might you be left to your own choice,it would be the single life. As to himself, I plainly said, That you hadgreat and just objections to him on the score of his careless morals:that it was surprising, that men who gave themselves the liberties hewas said to take, should presume to think, that whenever they took itinto their heads to marry, the most virtuous and worthy of the sexwere to fall to their lot. That as to the resumption, it had been verystrongly urged by myself, and would be still further urged; though youhad been hitherto averse to that measure: that your chief reliance andhopes were upon your cousin Morden; and that to suspend or gain timetill he arrived, was, as I believed, your principal aim.
I told him, That with regard to the mischief he threatened, neither theact nor the menace could serve any end but theirs who persecuted you; asit would give them a pretence for carrying into effect their compulsoryprojects; and that with the approbation of all the world; since he mustnot think the public would give its voice in favour of a violent youngman, of no extraordinary character as to morals, who should seek to roba family of eminence of a child so valuable; and who threatened, if hecould not obtain her in preference to a man chosen by themselves, thathe would avenge himself upon them all by acts of violence.
I added, That he was very much mistaken, if he thought to intimidate youby such menaces: for that, though your disposition was all sweetness,yet I knew not a steadier temper in the world than yours; nor one moreinflexible, (as your friends had found, and would still further find, ifthey continued to give occasion for its exertion,) whenever you thoughtyourself in the right; and that you were ungenerously dealt with inmatters of too much moment to be indifferent about. Miss ClarissaHarlowe, Mr. Lovelace, let me tell you, said I, timid as her foresightand prudence may make her in some cases, where she apprehends dangers tothose she loves, is above fear, in points where her honour, and the truedignity of her sex, are concerned.--In short, Sir, you must not think tofrighten Miss Clarissa Harlowe into such a mean or unworthy conduct asonly a weak or unsteady mind can be guilty of.
He was so very far from intending to intimidate you, he said, that hebesought me not to mention one word to you of what had passed betweenus: that what he had hinted at, which carried the air of menace, wasowing to the fervour of his spirits, raised by his apprehensions oflosing all hope of you for ever; and on a supposition, that you were tobe actually forced into the arms of a man you hated: that were this tobe the case, he must own, that he should pay very little regard to theworld, or its censures: especially as the menaces of some of your familynow, and their triumph over him afterwards, would both provoke andwarrant all the vengeance he could take.
He added, that all the countries in the world were alike to him, but onyour account: so that, whatever he should think fit to do, were you lostto him, he should have noting to apprehend from the laws of this.
I did not like the determined air he spoke this with: he is certainlycapable of great rashness.
He palliated a little this fierceness (which by the way I warmlycensured) by saying, That while you remain single, he will bear all theindignities that shall be cast upon him by your family. But wouldyou throw yourself, if you were still farther driven, into any otherprotection, if not Lord M.'s, or that of the ladies of his family, intomy mother's,* suppose; or would you go to London to private lodgings,where he would never visit you, unless he had your leave (and fromwhence you might make your own terms with your relations); he would beentirely satisfied; and would, as he had said before, wait the effect ofyour cousin's arrival, and your free determination as to his own fate.Adding, that he knew the family so well, and how much fixed they wereupon their measures, as well as the absolute dependence they had uponyour temper and principles, that he could not but apprehend the worst,while you remained in their power, and under the influence of theirpersuasions and menaces.
* Perhaps it will be unnecessary to remind the reader, that although Mr. Lovelace proposes (as above) to Miss Howe, that her fair friend should have recourse to the protection of Mrs. Howe, if farther driven; yet he had artfully taken care, by means of his agent in the Harlowe family, not only to inflame the family against her, but to deprive her of Mrs. Howe's, and of every other protection, being from the first resolved to reduce her to an absolute dependence upon himself. See Vol. I. Letter XXXI.
We had a great deal of other discourse: but as the reciting of the restwould be but a repetition of many of the things that passed between youand him in the interview between you in the wood-house, I refer myselfto your memory on that occasion.*
* See Vol. I. Letter XXXVI.
And now, my dear, upon the whole, I think it behoves you to makeyourself independent: a
ll then will fall right. This man is a violentman. I should wish, methinks, that you should not have either him orSolmes. You will find, if you get out of your brother's and sister'sway, what you can or cannot do, with regard to either.
If your relations persist in their foolish scheme, I think I will takehis hint, and, at a proper opportunity, sound my mother. Mean time, letme have your clear opinion of the resumption, which I join with Lovelacein advising. You can but see how your demand will work. To demand, isnot to litigate. But be your resolution what it will, do not by anymeans repeat to them, that you will not assert your right. If they go onto give you provocation, you may have sufficient reason to change yourmind: and let them expect that you will change it. They have not thegenerosity to treat you the better for disclaiming the power they knowyou have. That, I think, need not now be told you. I am, my dearestfriend, and ever will be,
Your most affectionate and faithful ANNA HOWE.