Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 7

by Samuel Richardson

  LETTER LXIII

  MRS. NORTON, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWEMONDAY, JULY 31.

  MY DEAREST YOUNG LADY,

  I must indeed own that I took the liberty to write to your mother,offering to enclose to her, if she gave me leave, your's of the 24th: bywhich I thought she would see what was the state of your mind; what thenature of your last troubles was from the wicked arrest; what the peopleare where you lodge; what proposals were made you from Lord M.'s family;also your sincere penitence; and how much Miss Howe's writing to them, inthe terms she wrote in, disturbed you--but, as you have taken the matterinto your own hands, and forbid me, in your last, to act in this niceaffair unknown to you, I am glad the letter was not required of me--andindeed it may be better that the matter lie wholly between you and them;since my affection for you is thought to proceed from partiality.

  They would choose, no doubt, that you should owe to themselves, and notto my humble mediation, the favour for which you so earnestly sue, and ofwhich I would not have your despair: for I will venture to assure you,that your mother is ready to take the first opportunity to show hermaternal tenderness: and this I gather from several hints I am not atliberty to explain myself upon.

  I long to be with you, now I am better, and now my son is in a fair wayof recovery. But is it not hard to have it signified to me that atpresent it will not be taken well if I go?--I suppose, while thereconciliation, which I hope will take place, is negotiating by means ofthe correspondence so newly opened between you and your sister. But ifyou will have me come, I will rely on my good intentions, and risqueevery one's displeasure.

  Mr. Brand has business in town; to solicit for a benefice which it isexpected the incumbent will be obliged to quit for a better preferment:and, when there, he is to inquire privately after your way of life, andof your health.

  He is a very officious young man; and, but that your uncle Harlowe (whohas chosen him for this errand) regards him as an oracle, your mother hadrather any body else had been sent.

  He is one of those puzzling, over-doing gentlemen, who think they seefarther into matters than any body else, and are fond of discoveredmysteries where there are none, in order to be thought shrewd men.

  I can't say I like him, either in the pulpit or out of it: I, who had afather one of the soundest divines and finest scholars in the kingdom;who never made an ostentation of what he knew; but loved and venerated hegospel he taught, preferring it to all other learning: to be obliged tohear a young man depart from his text as soon as he has named it, (socontrary, too, to the example set him by his learned and worthyprincipal,* when his health permits him to preach;) and throwing about,to a christian and country audience, scraps of Latin and Greek from thePagan Classics; and not always brought in with great propriety neither,(if I am to judge by the only way given me to judge of them, by theEnglish he puts them into;) is an indication of something wrong, eitherin his head, or his heart, or both; for, otherwise, his education at theuniversity must have taught him better. You know, my dear Miss Clary,the honour I have for the cloth: it is owing to that, that I say what Ido.

  * Dr. Lewen.

  I know not the day he is to set out; and, as his inquiries are to beprivate, be pleased to take no notice of this intelligence. I have nodoubt that your life and conversation are such as may defy the scrutiniesof the most officious inquirer.

  I am just now told that you have written a second letter to your sister:but am afraid they will wait for Mr. Brand's report, before fartherfavour will be obtained from them; for they will not yet believe you areso ill as I fear you are.

  But you would soon find that you have an indulgent mother, were she atliberty to act according to her own inclination. And this gives me greathopes that all will end well at last: for I verily think you are in theright way to a reconciliation. God give a blessing to it, and restoreyour health, and you to all your friends, prays

  Your ever affectionate,JUDITH NORTON.

  Your mother has privately sent me five guineas: she is pleased to say to help us in the illness we have been afflicted with; but, more likely, that I might send them to you, as from myself. I hope, therefore, I may send them up, with ten more I have still left.

  I will send you word of Mr. Morden's arrival, the moment I know it.

  If agreeable, I should be glad to know all that passes between your relations and you.