"How, my dear, am I driven!"

_April_ 8. Whether you will blame me or not I cannot tell. I have
deposited a letter to Mr. Lovelace confirming my resolution to leave
this house on Monday next. I tell him I shall not bring any clothes than
those I have on, lest I be suspected. That it will be best to go to a
private lodging near Lady Betty Lawrance's that it may not appear to the
world I have refuged myself with his family; that he shall instantly
leave me nor come near me but by my leave, and that if I find myself in
danger of being discovered and carried back by violence, I will throw
myself into the protection of Lady Betty or Lady Sarah.

"Oh, my dear, what a sad thing is the necessity forced upon me for all
this contrivance!"


_II.--In London_


Clarissa, after staying in lodgings at St. Albans, is persuaded by
Lovelace that she will be safer from her family in London. After
refusing a proposal for an immediate marriage, she therefore moves to
London to lodge in a house recommended as thoroughly respectable by
Lovelace, but which in reality is kept by a widow, Mrs. Sinclair, of no
good repute, who is in the pay of Lovelace.

Clarissa to her friend, Miss Howe:

"_April 26._ At length, my dear, I am in London. My lodgings are neatly