Now, Jack, says he, was it not very kind of Mr. Mennell [Captain Mennell
I sometimes called him; for among the military there is no such officer,
thou knowest, as a lieutenant, or an ensign--was it not very kind in him]
to come along with me so readily as he did, to satisfy my beloved about
the vapourish lady and the house?
But who is Capt. Mennell? methinks thou askest: I never heard of such a
man as Captain Mennell.
Very likely. But knowest thou not young Newcomb, honest Doleman's
newphew?
O-ho! Is it he?
It is. And I have changed his name by virtue of my own single authority.
Knowest thou not, that I am a great name-father? Preferment I bestow,
both military and civil. I give estates, and take them away at my
pleasure. Quality too I create. And by a still more valuable
prerogative, I degrade by virtue of my own imperial will, without any
other act of forfeiture than my own convenience. What a poor thing is a
monarch to me!
But Mennell, now he has seen this angel of a woman, has qualms; that's
the devil!--I shall have enough to do to keep him right. But it is the
less wonder, that he should stagger, when a few hours' conversation with
the same lady could make four much more hardened varlets find hearts--
only, that I am confident, that I shall at least reward her virtue, if
her virtue overcome me, or I should find it impossible to persevere--for
at times I have confounded qualms myself. But say not a word of them to
the confraternity: nor laugh at me for them thyself.
In another letter, dated Monday night, he writes as follows:
This perverse lady keeps me at such a distance, that I am sure something
is going on between her and Miss Howe, notwithstanding the prohibition
from Mrs. Howe to both: and as I have thought it some degree of merit in
myself to punish others for their transgressions, I am of opinion that
both these girls are punishable for their breach of parental injunctions.
And as to their letter-carrier, I have been inquiring into his way of
living; and finding him to be a common poacher, a deer-stealer, and
warren-robber, who, under pretence of haggling, deals with a set of
customers who constantly take all he brings, whether fish, fowl, or
venison, I hold myself justified (since Wilson's conveyance must at
present be sacred) to have him stripped and robbed, and what money he has
about him given to the poor; since, if I take not money as well as
letters, I shall be suspected.
To serve one's self, and punish a villain at the same time, is serving
public and private. The law was not made for such a man as me. And I
must come at correspondences so disobediently carried on.
But, on second thoughts, if I could find out that the dear creature
carried any of her letters in her pockets, I can get her to a play or to
a concert, and she may have the misfortune to lose her pockets.
But how shall I find this out; since her Dorcas knows no more of her
dressing and undressing than her Lovelace? For she is dressed for the
day before she appears even to her servant. Vilely suspicious! Upon my
soul, Jack, a suspicious temper is a punishable temper. If a woman
suspects a rogue in an honest man, is it not enough to make the honest
man who knows it a rogue?
But, as to her pockets, I think my mind hankers after them, as the less
mischievous attempt. But they cannot hold all the letters I should wish
to see. And yet a woman's pockets are half as deep as she is high. Tied
round the sweet levities, I presume, as ballast-bags, lest the wind, as
they move with full sail, from whale-ribbed canvass, should blow away the
gypsies.
[He then, in apprehension that something is meditating between the two
ladies, or that something may be set on foot to get Miss Harlowe out
of his hands, relates several of his contrivances, and boasts of his
instructions given in writing to Dorcas, and to his servant Will.
Summers; and says, that he has provided against every possible
accident, even to bring her back if she should escape, or in case she
should go abroad, and then refuse to return; and hopes so to manage,
as that, should he make an attempt, whether he succeeded in it or not,
he may have a pretence to detain her.]
He then proceeds as follows:
I have ordered Dorcas to cultivate by all means her lady's favour; to
lament her incapacity as to writing and reading; to shew letters to her
lady, as from pretended country relations; to beg her advice how to
answer them, and to get them answered; and to be always aiming at
scrawling with a pen, lest inky fingers should give suspicion. I have
moreover given the wench an ivory-leafed pocket-book, with a silver
pencil, that she may make memoranda on occasion.
And, let me tell thee, that the lady has already (at Mrs. Sinclair's
motion) removed her clothes out of the trunks they came in, into an ample
mahogany repository, where they will lie at full length, and which has
drawers in it for linen. A repository, that used to hold the richest
suits which some of the nymphs put on, when they are to be dressed out,
to captivate, or to ape quality. For many a countess, thou knowest, has
our mother equipped; nay, two or three duchesses, who live upon quality-
terms with their lords. But this to such as will come up to her price,
and can make an appearance like quality themselves on the occasion: for
the reputation of persons of birth must not lie at the mercy of every
under-degreed sinner.
A master-key, which will open every lock in this chest, is put into
Dorcas's hands; and she is to take care, when she searches for papers,
before she removes any thing, to observe how it lies, that she may
replace all to a hair. Sally and Polly can occasionally help to
transcribe. Slow and sure with such an Argus-eyed charmer must be all
my movements.
It is impossible that one so young and so inexperienced as she is can
have all her caution from herself; the behaviour of the women so
unexceptionable; no revellings, no company ever admitted into this inner-
house; all genteel, quiet, and easy in it; the nymphs well-bred, and
well-read; her first disgusts to the old one got over.--It must be Miss
Howe, therefore, [who once was in danger of being taken in by one of our
class, by honest Sir George Colmar, as thou hast heard,] that makes my
progress difficult.
Thou seest, Belford, by the above precautionaries, that I forget nothing.
As the song says, it is not to be imagined
On what slight strings
Depend these things
On which men build their glory!
So far, so good. I shall never rest till I have discovered in the first
place, where the dear creature puts her letters; and in the next till I
have got her to a play, to a concert, or to take an airing with me out of
town for a day or two.
***
I gave thee just now some of my contrivances. Dorcas, who is ever
attentive to all her lady's motions, has given me some instances of her
mistress's precautions. She wafers her letters, it seems, in two places;
pricks the wafers; and then seals upon them. No doubt but the same care
is taken with regard to those brought to her, for she always examines the
seals of the latter before she opens them.
I must, I must come at them. This difficulty augments my curiosity.
Strange, so much as she writes, and at all hours, that not one sleepy or
forgetful moment has offered in our favour!
A fair contention, thou seest: nor plead thou in her favour her youth,
her beauty, her family, her fortune, CREDULITY, she has none; and with
regard to her TENDER YEARS, Am I not a young fellow myself? As to
BEAUTY; pr'ythee, Jack, do thou, to spare my modesty, make a comparison
between my Clarissa for a woman, and thy Lovelace for a man. For her
FAMILY; that was not known to its country a century ago: and I hate them
all but her. Have I not cause?--For her FORTUNE; fortune, thou knowest,
was ever a stimulus with me; and this for reasons not ignoble. Do not
girls of fortune adorn themselves on purpose to engage our attention?
Seek they not to draw us into their snares? Depend they not, generally,
upon their fortunes, in the views they have upon us, more than on their
merits? Shall we deprive them of the benefit of their principal
dependence?--Can I, in particular, marry every girl who wishes to obtain
my notice? If, therefore, in support of the libertine principles for
which none of the sweet rogues hate us, a woman of fortune is brought to
yield homage to her emperor, and any consequences attend the subjugation,
is not such a one shielded by her fortune, as well from insult and
contempt, as from indigence--all, then, that admits of debate between my
beloved and me is only this--which of the two has more wit, more
circumspection--and that remains to be tried.
A sad life, however, this life of doubt and suspense, for the poor lady
to live, as well as for me; that is to say, if she be not naturally
jealous--if she be, her uneasiness is constitutional, and she cannot help
it; nor will it, in that case, hurt her. For a suspicious temper will
make occasion for doubt, if none were to offer to its hand. My fair one
therefore, if naturally suspicious, is obliged to me for saving her the
trouble of studying for these occasions--but, after all, the plainest
paths in our journeys through life are the safest and best I believe,
although it is not given me to choose them; I am not, however, singular
in the pursuit of the more intricate paths; since there are thousands,
and ten thousands, who had rather fish in troubled waters than in smooth.