At last, as we understand, there is some hope of you. Now does my good
Lord run over his bead-roll of proverbs; of black oxen, wild oats, long
lanes, and so forth.
Now, Cousin, say I, is your time come; and you will be no longer, I hope,
an infidel either to the power or excellence of the sex you have
pretended hitherto so much as undervalue; nor a ridiculer or scoffer at
an institution which all sober people reverence, and all rakes, sooner or
later, are brought to reverence, or to wish they had.
I want to see how you become your silken fetters: whether the charming
yoke sits light upon your shoulders. If with such a sweet yoke-fellow it
does not, my Lord, and my sister, as well as I, think that you will
deserve a closer tie about your neck.
His Lordship is very much displeased, that you have not written him word
of the day, the hour, the manner, and every thing. But I ask him, how he
can already expect any mark of deference or politeness from you? He must
stay, I tell him, till that sign of reformation, among others, appear
from the influence and example of your lady: but that, if ever you will
be good for any thing, it will be quickly seen. And, O Cousin, what a
vast, vast journey have you to take from the dreary land of libertinism,
through the bright province of reformation, into the serene kingdom of
happiness!--You had need to lose no time. You have many a weary step to
tread, before you can overtake those travellers who set out for it from a
less remote quarter. But you have a charming pole-star to guide you;
that's your advantage. I wish you joy of it: and as I have never yet
expected any highly complaisant thing from you, I make no scruple to
begin first; but it is purely, I must tell you, in respect to my new
cousin; whose accession into our family we most heartily congratulate and
rejoice in.
I have a letter from Lady Betty. She commands either my attendance or my
sister's to my cousin Leeson's. She puts Lord M. in hopes, that she
shall certainly bring down with her our lovely new relation; for she
says, she will not be denied. His Lordship is the willinger to let me be
the person, as I am in a manner wild to see her; my sister having two
years ago had that honour at Sir Robert Biddulph's. So get ready to
accompany us in our return; except your lady had objections strong enough
to satisfy us all. Lady Sarah longs to see her; and says, This accession
to the family will supply to it the loss of her beloved daughter.
I shall soon, I hope, pay my compliments to the dear lady in person: so
have nothing to add, but that I am
Your old mad Playfellow and Cousin,
CHARLOTTE MONTAGUE.
***
The women having read the copies of these two letters, I thought that I
might then threaten and swagger--'But very little heart have I, said I,
to encourage such a visit from Lady Betty and Miss Montague to my spouse.
For after all, I am tired out with her strange ways. She is not what she
was, and (as I told her in your hearing, Ladies) I will leave this plaguy
island, though the place of my birth, and though the stake I have in it
is very considerable, and go and reside in France or Italy, and never
think of myself as a married man, nor live like one.'
O dear! said one.
That would be a sad thing! said the other.
Nay, Madam, [turning to Mrs. Moore,]--Indeed, Madam, [to Miss Rawlins,]--
I am quite desperate. I can no longer bear such usage. I have had the
good fortune to be favoured by the smiles of very fine ladies, though I
say it [and I looked very modest] both abroad and at home--[Thou knowest
this to be true, Jack]. With regard to my spouse here, I have but one
hope left, (for as to the reconciliation with her friends, I left, I
scorn them all too much to value that, but for her sake,) and that was,
that if it pleased God to bless us with children, she might entirely
recover her usual serenity; and we might then be happy. But the
reconciliation her heart was so much set upon, is now, as I hinted
before, entirely hopeless--made so, by this rash step of her's, and by
the rash temper she is in; since (as you will believe) her brother and
sister, when they come to know it, will make a fine handle of it against
us both;--affecting, as they do at present, to disbelieve our marriage--
and the dear creature herself too ready to countenance such a disbelief
--as nothing more than the ceremony--as nothing more--hem!--as nothing
more than the ceremony--
Here, as thou wilt perceive, I was bashful; for Miss Rawlins, by her
preparatory primness, put me in mind that it was proper to be so--
I turned half round; then facing the fan-player, and the matron--you
yourselves, Ladies, knew not what to believe till now, that I have told
you our story; and I do assure you, that I shall not give myself the same
trouble to convince people I hate; people from whom I neither expect nor
desire any favour; and who are determined not to be convinced. And what,
pray, must be the issue, when her uncle's friend comes, although he seems
to be a truly worthy man? It is not natural for him to say, 'To what
purpose, Mr. Lovelace, should I endeavour to bring about a reconciliation
between Mrs. Lovelace and her friends, by means of her elder uncle, when
a good understanding is wanting between yourselves?'--A fair inference,
Mrs. Moore!--A fair inference, Miss Rawlins.--And here is the
unhappiness--till she is reconciled to them, this cursed oath, in her
notion, is binding.
The women seemed moved; for I spoke with great earnestness, though
low--and besides, they love to have their sex, and its favours, appear of
importance to us. They shook their deep heads at each other, and looked
sorrowful: and this moved my tender heart too.
'Tis an unheard-of case, Ladies--had she not preferred me to all
mankind--There I stopped--and that, resumed I, feeling for my
handkerchief, is what staggered Captain Tomlinson when he heard of her
flight; who, the last time he saw us together, saw the most affectionate
couple on earth!--the most affectionate couple on earth!--in the
accent-grievous, repeated I.
Out then I pulled my handkerchief, and putting it to my eyes, arose, and
walked to the window--It makes me weaker than a woman, did I not love
her, as never man loved his wife! [I have no doubt but I do, Jack.]
There again I stopt; and resuming--Charming creature, as you see she is,
I wish I had never beheld her face!--Excuse me, Ladies; traversing the
room, and having rubbed my eyes till I supposed them red, I turned to the
women; and, pulling out my letter-case, I will show you one letter--here
it is--read it, Miss Rawlins, if you please--it will confirm to you how
much all my family are prepared to admire her. I am freely treated in
it;--so I am in the two others: but after what I have told you, nothing
need be a secret to you two.
She took it, with an air of eager curiosity, and looked at the seal,
ostentatiously coroneted; and at the superscription, reading out, To
Robert Lovelace, Esq.--Ay, Madam--Ay, Miss, that's my name, [giving
myself an air, though I had told it to them before,] I am not ashamed of
it. My wife's maiden name--unmarried name, I should rather say--fool
that I am!--and I rubbed my cheek for vexation [Fool enough in
conscience, Jack!] was Harlowe--Clarissa Harlowe--you heard me call her
my Clarissa--