MR. BELFORD, TO ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ.
NINE, FRIDAY MORN.
I have no opportunity to write at length, having necessary orders to give
on the melancholy occasion. Joel, who got to me by six in the morning,
and whom I dispatched instantly back with the letter I had ready from
last night, gives me but an indifferent account of the state of your
mind. I wonder not at it; but time (and nothing else can) will make it
easier to you: if (that is to say) you have compounded with your
conscience; else it may be heavier every day than other.
***
Tourville tells us what a way you are in. I hope you will not think of
coming hither. The lady in her will desires you may not see her. Four
copies are making of it. It is a long one; for she gives her reasons for
all she wills. I will write to you more particularly as soon as possibly
I can.
***
Three letters are just brought by a servant in livery, directed To Miss
Clarissa Harlowe. I will send copies of them to you. The contents are
enough to make one mad. How would this poor lady have rejoiced to
receive them!--And yet, if she had, she would not have been enabled to
say, as she nobly did,* That God would not let her depend for comfort
upon any but Himself.--And indeed for some days past she had seemed to
have got above all worldly considerations.--Her fervent love, even for
her Miss Howe, as she acknowledged, having given way to supremer
fervours.**
* See Letter I. of this volume.
** See Vol. VIII. Letter LXII.