Clarissa, Volume 6 - The History Of A Young Lady

Clarissa, Volume 6 − The History Of A Young Lady 165
* See Vol. V. Letter XX.
Apprehensive for both our safeties from the villany of such a daring and profligate contriver, I must call upon
you, my dear, to resolve upon taking legal vengeance of the infernal wretch. And this not only for our own
sakes, but for the sakes of innocents who otherwise may yet be deluded and outraged by him.
[She then gives the particulars of the report made by the young fellow whom she sent to Hampstead with her
letter; and who supposed he had delivered it into her own hand;* and then proceeds:]
* See Vol. VI. Letter VI.
I am astonished, that the vile wretch, who could know nothing of the time my messenger, (whose honesty I
can vouch for) would come, could have a creature ready to personate you! Strange, that the man should
happen to arrive just as you were gone to church, (as I find was the fact, on comparing what he says with your
hint that you were at church twice that day,) when he might have got to Mrs. Moore's two hours before!−−But
had you told me, my dear, that the villain had found you out, and was about you!−−You should have done
that−−yet I blame you upon a judgment founded on the event only!
I never had any faith in the stories that go current among country girls, of specters, familiars, and demons; yet
I see not any other way to account for this wretch's successful villany, and for his means of working up his
specious delusions, but by supposing, (if he be not the devil himself,) that he has a familiar constantly at his
elbow. Sometimes it seems to me that this familiar assumes the shape of that solemn villain Tomlinson:
sometimes that of the execrable Sinclair, as he calls her: sometimes it is permitted to take that of Lady Betty
Lawrance −−but, when it would assume the angelic shape and mien of my beloved friend, see what a bloated
figure it made!
'Tis my opinion, my dear, that you will be no longer safe where you are, than while the V. is in the country.
Words are poor!−−or how could I execrate him! I have hardly any doubt that he has sold himself for a time.
Oh! may the time be short!−−or may his infernal prompter no more keep covenant with him than he does with
others!
I enclose not only the rough draught of my long letter mentioned above, but the heads of that which the young
fellow thought he delivered into your own hands at Hampstead. And when you have perused them, I will
leave to you to judge how much reason I had to be surprised that you wrote me not an answer to either of
those letters; one of which you owned you had received, (though it proved to be his forged one,) the other
delivered into your own hands, as I was assured; and both of them of so much concern to your honour; and
still now much more surprised I must be, when I received a letter from Mrs. Townsend, dated June 15, from
Hampstead, importing, 'That Mr. Lovelace, who had been with you several days, had, on the Monday before,
brought Lady Betty and his cousin, richly dressed, and in a coach−and−four, to visit you: who, with your own
consent, had carried you to town with them−−to your former lodgings; where you still were: that the
Hampstead women believed you to be married; and reflected upon me as a fomenter of differences between
man and wife: that he himself was at Hampstead the day before; viz. Wednesday the 14th; and boasted of his
happiness with you; inviting Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Bevis, and Miss Rawlins, to go to town, to visit his spouse;
which they promised to do: that he declared that you were entirely reconciled to your former lodgings:−−and
that, finally, the women at Hampstead told Mrs. Townsend, that he had very handsomely discharged theirs.'
I own to you, my dear, that I was so much surprised and disgusted at these appearances against a conduct till
then unexceptionable, that I was resolved to make myself as easy as I could, and wait till you should think fit
to write to me. But I could rein−in my impatience but for a few days; and on the 20th of June I wrote a sharp
letter to you; which I find you did not receive.
What a fatality, my dear, has appeared in your case, from the very beginning till this hour! Had my mother