So here is the master-stroke of my brother's policy! Called upon to
consent to go to my uncle Antony's avowedly to receive Mr. Solmes's
visits!--A chapel! A moated-house!--Deprived of the opportunity of
corresponding with you!--or of any possibility of escape, should
violence be used to compel me to be that odious man's!*
* These violent measures, and the obstinate perseverance of
the whole family in them, will be the less wondered at, when
it is considered, that all the time they were but as so many
puppets danced upon Mr. Lovelace's wires, as he boasts, Vol.
I. Letter XXXI.
Late as it was when I received this insolent letter, I wrote an answer
to it directly, that it might be ready for the writer's time of rising.
I inclose the rough draught of it. You will see by it how much his vile
hint from the Georgic; and his rude one of my whining vocatives, have
set me up. Besides, as the command to get ready to go to my uncle's is
in the name of my father and uncles, it is but to shew a piece of the
art they accuse me of, to resent the vile hint I have so much reason to
resent in order to palliate my refusal of preparing to go to my uncle's;
which refusal would otherwise be interpreted an act of rebellion by my
brother and sister: for it seems plain to me, that they will work but
half their ends, if they do not deprive me of my father's and uncles'
favour, even although it were possible for me to comply with their own
terms.
You might have told me, Brother, in three lines, what the determination
of my friends was; only, that then you would not have had room to
display your pedantry by so detestable an allusion or reference to the
Georgic. Give me leave to tell you, Sir, that if humanity were a branch
of your studies at the university, it has not found a genius in you for
mastering it. Nor is either my sex or myself, though a sister, I see
entitled to the least decency from a brother, who has studied, as it
seems, rather to cultivate the malevolence of his natural temper,
than any tendency which one might have hoped his parentage, if not his
education, might have given him to a tolerable politeness.
I doubt not, that you will take amiss my freedom: but as you have
deserved it from me, I shall be less and less concerned on that score,
as I see you are more and more intent to shew your wit at the expense of
justice and compassion.
The time is indeed come that I can no longer bear those contempts and
reflections which a brother, least of all men, is entitled to give. And
let me beg of you one favour, Sir:--It is this, That you will not give
yourself any concern about a husband for me, till I shall have the
forwardness to propose a wife to you. Pardon me, Sir; but I cannot
help thinking, that could I have the art to get my father of my side, I
should have as much right to prescribe for you, as you have for me.
As to the communication you make me, I must take upon me to say, That
although I will receive, as becomes me, any of my father's commands;
yet, as this signification is made by a brother, who has shewn of late
so much of an unbrotherly animosity to me, (for no reason in the world
that I know if, but that he believes he has, in me, one sister too much
for his interest,) I think myself entitled to conclude, that such a
letter as you have sent me, is all your own: and of course to declare,
that, while I so think it, I will not willingly, nor even without
violence, go to any place, avowedly to receive Mr. Solmes's visits.
I think myself so much entitled to resent your infamous hint, and this
as well for the sake of my sex, as for my own, that I ought to declare,
as I do, that I will not receive any more of your letters, unless
commanded to do so by an authority I never will dispute; except in a
case where I think my future as well as present happiness concerned: and
were such a case to happen, I am sure my father's harshness will be less
owing to himself than to you; and to the specious absurdities of your
ambitious and selfish schemes.--Very true, Sir!
One word more, provoked as I am, I will add: That had I been thought as
really obstinate and perverse as of late I am said to be, I should not
have been so disgracefully treated as I have been--Lay your hand upon
your heart, Brother, and say, By whose instigations?--And examine what I
have done to deserve to be made thus unhappy, and to be obliged to style
myself
Your injured sister, CL. HARLOWE.
When, my dear, you have read my answer to my brother's letter, tell me
what you think of me?--It shall go!