Clarissa, Volume 6 - The History Of A Young Lady

Clarissa, Volume 6 − The History Of A Young Lady 137
that I wulde plessure you in advarsity, if advarsity be your lott, as well as prosperity; for I am none of those
that woulde doe otherwiss. Soe no more from
Your humble sarvent, to wish you well, SARAH HODGES.
LETTER LXI
MISS CL. HARLOWE, TO LADY BETTY LAWRANCE. MONDAY, JULY 3.
MADAM,
I cannot excuse myself from giving your Ladyship this one trouble more; to thank you, as I most heartily do,
for your kind letter.
I must own to you, Madam, that the honour of being related to ladies as eminent for their virtue as for their
descent, was at first no small inducement with me to lend an ear to Mr. Lovelace's address. And the rather, as
I was determined, had it come to effect, to do every thing in my power to deserve your favourable opinion.
I had another motive, which I knew would of itself give me merit with your whole family; a presumptuous
one, (a punishably presumptuous one, as it has proved,) in the hope that I might be an humble mean in the
hand of Providence to reclaim a man, who had, as I thought, good sense enough to acknowledge the intended
obligation, whether the generous hope were to succeed or not.
But I have been most egregiously mistaken in Mr. Lovelace; the only man, I persuade myself, pretending to
be a gentleman, in whom I could have been so much mistaken: for while I was endeavouring to save a
drowning wretch, I have been, not accidentally, but premeditatedly, and of set purpose, drawn in after him.
And he has had the glory to add to the list of those he has ruined, a name, that, I will be bold to say, would not
have disparaged his own. And this, Madam, by means that would shock humanity to be made acquainted with.
My whole end is served by your Ladyship's answer to the questions I took the liberty to put to you in writing.
Nor have I a wish to make the unhappy man more odious to you than is necessary to excuse myself for
absolutely declining your offered mediation.
When your Ladyship shall be informed of the following particulars:
That after he had compulsorily, as I may say, tricked me into the act of going off with him, he could carry me
to one of the vilest houses, as it proved, in London:
That he could be guilty of a wicked attempt, in resentment of which, I found means to escape from him to
Hampstead:
That, after he had found me out there (I know not how) he could procure two women, dressed out richly, to
personate your Ladyship and Miss Montague; who, under pretence of engaging me to make a visit in town to
your cousin Leeson, (promising to return with me that evening to Hampstead,) betrayed me back again to the
vile house: where, again made a prisoner, I was first robbed of my senses; and then of my honour. Why
should I seek to conceal that disgrace from others which I cannot hide from myself?
When your Ladyship shall know, that, in the shocking progress to this ruin, wilful falsehoods, repeated
forgeries, (particularly of one letter from your Ladyship, another from Miss Montague, and a third from Lord
M.) and numberless perjuries, were not the least of his crimes: you will judge, that I can have no principles
that will make me worthy of an alliance with ladies of your's and your noble sister's character, if I could not
from my soul declare, that such an alliance can never now take place.