MR VILLARS TO LADY HOWARD Berry Hill, May 2.
YOUR letter, Madam, has opened a source of anxiety, to which I look
forward with dread, and which, to see closed, I scarcely dare expect. I
am unwilling to oppose my opinion to that of your Ladyship; nor,
indeed, can I, but by arguments which I believe will rather rank me
as a hermit ignorant of the world, and fit only for my cell, than as
a proper guardian, in an age such as this, for an accomplished young
woman. Yet, thus called upon, it behoves me to explain, and endeavour
to vindicate, the reasons by which I have been hitherto guided.
The mother of this dear child,-who was led to destruction by her own
imprudence, the hardness of heart of Madame Duval, and the villany of
Sir John Belmont,-was once, what her daughter is now, the best beloved
of my heart: and her memory, so long as my own holds, I shall love,
mourn and honour! On the fatal day that her gentle soul left its
mansion, and not many hours ere she ceased to breathe, I solemnly
plighted my faith, That her child if it lived, should know no father
but myself, or her acknowledged husband.
You cannot, Madam, suppose that I found much difficulty in adhering
to this promise, and forbearing to make any claim upon Sir John
Belmont. Could I feel an affection the most paternal for this poor
sufferer, and not abominate her destroyer? Could I wish to deliver to
him, who had so basely betrayed the mother, the helpless and innocent
offspring, who, born in so much sorrow, seemed entitled to all the
compassionate tenderness of pity?
For many years, the name alone of that man, accidentally spoken in my
hearing, almost divested me of my Christianity, and scarce could I
forbear to execrate him. Yet I sought not, neither did I desire, to
deprive him of his child, had he with any appearance of contrition,
or, indeed, of humanity, endeavoured to become less unworthy such a
blessing;-but he is a stranger to all parental feelings, and has with
a savage insensibility, forborne to enquire even into the existence
of this sweet orphan, though the situation of his injured wife was
but too well known to him.
You wish to be acquainted with my intentions.-I must acknowledge
they were such as I now perceive would not be honoured with your
Ladyship's approbation; for though I have sometimes thought of
presenting Evelina to her father, and demanding the justice which
is her due, yet, at other times, I have both disdained and feared
the application; disdained lest it should be refused; and feared,
lest it should be accepted!
Lady Belmont, who was firmly persuaded of her approaching dissolution,
frequently and earnestly besought me, that if her infant was a female,
I would not abandon her to the direction of a man so wholly unfit to
take the charge of her education: but, should she be importunately
demanded, that I would retire with her abroad, and carefully conceal
her from Sir John, till some apparent change in his sentiments and
conduct should announce him less improper for such a trust. And
often would she say, "Should the poor babe have any feelings
correspondent with its mother's, it will have no want while under
your protection." Alas! she had no sooner quitted it herself, than
she was plunged into a gulph of misery, that swallowed up her peace,
reputation, and life.
During the childhood of Evelina, I suggested a thousand plans for the
security of her birth-right;-but I as many times rejected them. I
was in a perpetual conflict, between the desire that she should
have justice done her, and the apprehension that, while I improved
her fortune, I should endanger her mind. However, as her character
began to be formed, and her disposition to be displayed, my perplexity
abated; the road before me seemed less thorny and intricate, and I
thought I could perceive the right path from the wrong: for when I
observed the artless openness the ingenuous simplicity of her nature;
when I saw that her guileless and innocent soul fancied all the world
to be pure and disinterested as herself, and that her heart was open
to every impression with which love, pity, or art might assail it;-then
did I flatter myself, that to follow my own inclination, and to secure
her welfare, was the same thing; since, to expose her to the snares and
dangers inevitably encircling a house of which the master is dissipated
and unprincipled, without the guidance of a mother, or any prudent and
sensible female, seemed to me no less than suffering her to stumble
into some dreadful pit, when the sun is in its meridian. My plan,
therefore, was not merely to educate and to cherish her as my own, but
to adopt her the heiress of my small fortune, and to bestow her upon
some worthy man, with whom she might spend her days in tranquility,
cheerfulness, and good-humour, untainted by vice, folly, or ambition.
So much for the time past. Such have been the motives by which I have
been governed; and I hope they will be allowed not merely to account
for, but also to justify, the conduct which has resulted from them. It
now remains to speak of the time to come.
And here, indeed, I am sensible of difficulties which I almost despair
of surmounting according to my wishes. I pay the highest deference to
your Ladyship's opinion, which it is extremely painful to me not to
concur with;-yet I am so well acquainted with your goodness, that I
presume to hope it would not be absolutely impossible for me to offer
such arguments as might lead you to think with me, that this young
creature's chance of happiness seems less doubtful in retirement, than
it would be in the gay and dissipated world. But why should I perplex
your Ladyship with reasoning that can turn to so little account? for,
alas! what arguments, what persuasions, can I make use of, with any
prospect of success, to such a woman as Madame Duval? Her character
and the violence of her disposition, intimidate me from making the
attempt: she is too ignorant for instruction, too obstinate for
intreaty, and too weak for reason.
I will not, therefore, enter into a contest from which I have nothing
to expect but altercation and impertinence. As soon would I discuss the
effect of sound with the deaf, or the nature of colours with the blind,
as aim at illuminating with conviction a mind so warped by prejudice,
so much the slave of unruly and illiberal passions. Unused as she
is to control, persuasion would but harden, and opposition incense
her. I yield, therefore, to the necessity which compels my reluctant
acquiescence; and shall now turn all my thoughts upon considering
of such methods for the conducting this enterprise, as may be most
conducive to the happiness of my child and least liable to wound
her sensibility.
The law-suit, therefore, I wholly and absolutely disapprove.
Will you, my dear Madam, forgive the freedom of an old man, if I
own myself greatly surprised, that you could, even for a moment,
listen to a plan so violent, so public, so totally repugnant to all
female delicacy? I am satisfied your Ladyship has not weighed this
project. There was a time, indeed, when to assert the innocence
of Lady Belmont, and to blazon to the world the wrongs, not guilt,
by which she suffered, I proposed, nay attempted, a similar plan:
but then all assistance and encouragement was denied. How cruel to
the remembrance I bear of her woes is this tardy resentment of Madame
Duval! She was deaf to the voice of Nature, though she has hearkened
to that of Ambition.
Never can I consent to have this dear and timid girl brought forward to
the notice of the world by such a method; a method which will subject
her to all the impertinence of curiosity, the sneers of conjecture, and
the stings of ridicule. And for what?-the attainment of wealth which
she does not want, and the gratification of vanity which she does not
feel. A child to appear against a father!-no, Madam, old and infirm
as I am, I would even yet sooner convey her myself to some remote
part of the world, though I were sure of dying in the expedition.
Far different had been the motives which would have stimulated
her unhappy mother to such a proceeding; all her felicity in this
world was irretrievably lost; her life was become a burthen to her;
and her fair fame, which she had early been taught to prize above
all other things, had received a mortal wound: therefore, to clear
her own honour, and to secure from blemish the birth of her child,
was all the good which fortune had reserved herself the power of
bestowing. But even this last consolation was withheld from her!
Let milder measures be adopted: and-since it must be so-let application
be made to Sir John Belmont, but as to a law-suit, I hope, upon this
subject, never more to hear it mentioned.
With Madame Duval, all pleas of delicacy would be ineffectual;
her scheme must be opposed by arguments better suited to her
understanding. I will not, therefore, talk of its impropriety, but
endeavour to prove its inutility. Have the goodness, then, to tell
her, that her own intentions would be frustrated by her plan; since,
should the lawsuit be commenced, and even should the cause be gained,
Sir John Belmont would still have it in his power, and, if irritated,
no doubt in his inclination, to cut off her grand-daughter with
a shilling.
She cannot do better herself than to remain quiet and inactive
in the affair: the long and mutual animosity between her and Sir
John will make her interference merely productive of debates and
ill-will. Neither would I have Evelina appear till summoned. And as
to myself, I must wholly decline acting; though I will, with unwearied
zeal, devote all my thoughts to giving counsel: but, in truth, I have
neither inclination nor spirits adequate to engaging personally with
this man.
My opinion is, that he would pay more respect to a letter from your
Ladyship upon this subject, than from any other person. I, therefore,
advise and hope, that you will yourself take the trouble of writing
to him, in order to open the affair. When he shall be inclined to see
Evelina, I have for him a posthumous letter, which his much injured
lady left to be presented to him, if ever such a meeting should
take place.
The views of the Branghtons, in suggesting this scheme, are obviously
interested. They hope, by securing to Evelina the fortune of her
father, to induce Madame Duval to settle her own upon themselves. In
this, however, they would probably be mistaken; for little minds have
ever a propensity to bestow their wealth upon those who are already
in affluence; and, therefore, the less her grandchild requires her
assistance, the more gladly she will give it.
I have but one thing more to add, from which, however, I can by no
means recede: my word so solemnly given to Lady Belmont, that her
child should never be owned but with her self, must be inviolably
adhered to. I am, dear Madam, with great respect, Your Ladyship's
most obedient servant, ARTHUR VILLARS.