MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO LORD M. AND TO THE LADIES OF HIS HOUSE
[IN REPLY TO MISS MONTAGUE'S OF AUG. 7. SEE LETTER LXXVI. OF THIS VOLUME.]
TUESDAY, AUG. 8.
Excuse me, my good Lord, and my ever-honoured Ladies, from accepting of
your noble quarterly bounty; and allow me to return, with all grateful
acknowledgement, and true humility, the enclosed earnest of your goodness
to me. Indeed I have no need of the one, and cannot possibly want the
other: but, nevertheless have such a sense of your generous favour, that,
to my last hour, I shall have pleasure in contemplating upon it, and be
proud of the place I hold in the esteem of such venerable persons, to
whom I once had the ambition to hope to be related.
But give me leave to express my concern that you have banished your
kinsman from your presence and favour: since now, perhaps, he will be
under less restraint than ever; and since I in particular, who had hoped
by your influence to remain unmolested for the remainder of my days, may
again be subjected to his persecutions.
He has not, my good Lord, and my dear Ladies, offended against you, as he
has against me; yet you could all very generously intercede for him with
me: and shall I be very improper, if I desire, for my own peace-sake; for
the sake of other poor creatures, who may still be injured by him, if he
be made quite desperate; and for the sake of all your worthy family; that
you will extend to him that forgiveness which you hope for from me? and
this the rather, as I presume to think, that his daring and impetuous
spirit will not be subdued by violent methods; since I have no doubt that
the gratifying of a present passion will be always more prevalent with
him than any future prospects, however unwarrantable the one, or
beneficial the other.
Your resentments on my account are extremely generous, as your goodness
to me is truly noble: but I am not without hope that he will be properly
affected by the evils he has made me suffer; and that, when I am laid low
and forgotten, your whole honourable family will be enabled to rejoice in
his reformation; and see many of those happy years together, which, my
good Lord, and my dear Ladies, you so kindly wish to
Your ever-grateful and obliged
CLARISSA HARLOWE.