Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 Read Online Free PDF

LOVE.
    Upon the whole, we had a noble controversy upon this subject, in which he insisted upon the unprecedented merit of the lady. Nevertheless I got the better of him; for he was struck absolutely dumb, when (waving her present perverseness, which yet was a sufficient answer to all his pleas) I asserted, and offered to prove it, by a thousand instances impromptu, that love was not governed by merit, nor could be under the dominion of prudence, or any other reasoning power: and if the lady were capable of love, it was of such a sort as he had nothing to do with, and which never before reigned in a female heart.
    I asked him, what he thought of her flight from me, at a time when I was more than half overcome by the right sort of love he talked of?--And then I showed him the letter she wrote, and left behind her for me, with an intention, no doubt, absolutely to break my heart, or to provoke me to hang, drown, or shoot myself; to say nothing of a multitude of declarations from her, defying his power, and imputing all that looked like love in her behaviour to me, to the persecution and rejection of her friends; which made her think of me but as a last resort.
    LOVE then gave her up. The letter, he said, deserved neither pardon nor excuse. He did not think he had been pleading for such a declared rebel. And as to the rest, he should be a betrayer of the rights of his own sovereignty, if what I had alleged were true, and he were still to plead for her.
    I swore to the truth of all. And truly I swore: which perhaps I do not
always do.
    And now what thinkest thou must become of the lady, whom LOVE itself gives up, and CONSCIENCE cannot plead for?
LETTER V
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON.
    O Belford! what a hair's-breadth escape have I had!--Such a one, that I tremble between terror and joy, at the thought of what might have happened, and did not.
    What a perverse girl is this, to contend with her fate; yet has reason to think, that her very stars fight against her! I am the luckiest of me!--But my breath almost fails me, when I reflect upon what a slender thread my destiny hung.
    But not to keep thee in suspense; I have, within this half-hour, obtained possession of the expected letter from Miss Howe--and by such an accident! But here, with the former, I dispatch this; thy messenger waiting.
LETTER VI
MR. LOVELACE
[IN CONTINUATION.]
    Thus it was--My charmer accompanied Mrs. Moore again to church this afternoon. I had been in very earnest, in the first place, to obtain her company at dinner: but in vain. According to what she had said to Mrs. Moore,* I was too considerable to her to be allowed that favour. In the next place, I besought her to favour me, after dinner, with another garden-walk. But she would again go to church. And what reason have I to rejoice that she did!
    * See Letter III. of this volume.
    My worthy friend, Mrs. Bevis, thought one sermon a day, well observed, enough; so staid at home to bear me company.
    The lady and Mrs. Moore had not been gone a quarter of an hour, when a young country-fellow on horseback came to the door, and inquired for Mrs. Harriot Lucas. The widow and I (undetermined how we were to entertain each other) were in the parlour next the door; and hearing the fellow's inquiry, O my dear Mrs. Bevis, said I, I am undone, undone for ever, if you don't help me out!--Since here, in all probability, is a messenger from that implacable Miss Howe with a letter; which, if delivered to Mrs. Lovelace, may undo all we have been doing.
    What, said she, would you have me do?
    Call the maid in this moment, that I may give her her lesson; and if it be as I imagined, I'll tell you what you shall do.
    Wid. Margaret!--Margaret! come in this minute.
    Lovel. What answer, Mrs. Margaret, did you give the man, upon his asking for Mrs. Harriot Lucas?
    Peggy. I only asked, What was his business, and who he came from? (for, Sir, your honour's servant had told me how things stood): and I came at your