MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
FRIDAY MORNING, PAST TWO O'CLOCK.
Io Triumphe!--Io Clarissa, sing!--Once more, what a happy man thy
friend!--A silly dear novice, to be heard to tell the coachman where to
carry her!--And to go to Hampstead, of all the villages about London!--
The place where we had been together more than once!
Methinks I am sorry she managed no better!--I shall find the recovery of
her too easy a task, I fear! Had she but known how much difficulty
enhances the value of any thing with me, and had she the least notion of
obliging me by it, she would never have stopt short at Hampstead, surely.
Well, but after al this exultation, thou wilt ask, If I have already got
back my charmer?--I have not;--But knowing where she is, is almost the
same thing as having her in my power. And it delights me to think how
she will start and tremble when I first pop upon her! How she will look
with conscious guilt, that will more than wipe off my guilt of Wednesday
night, when she sees her injured lover, and acknowledged husband, from
whom, the greatest of felonies, she would have stolen herself.
But thou wilt be impatient to know how I came by my lights. Read the
enclosed letter, as I have told thee, I have given my fellow, in
apprehension of such an elopement; and that will tell thee all, and what
I may reasonably expect from the rascal's diligence and management, if he
wishes ever to see my face again.
I received it about half an hour ago, just as I was going to lie down in
my clothes, and it has made me so much alive, that, midnight as it is, I
have sent for a Blunt's chariot, to attend me here by day peep, with my
usual coachman, if possible; and knowing not what else to do with myself,
I sat down, and, in the joy of my heart, have not only written thus far,
but have concluded upon the measures I shall take when admitted to her
presence: for well am I aware of the difficulties I shall have to contend
with from her perverseness.