THE HISTORY

OF

CLARISSA HARLOWE



LETTER I

MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE


My heart fluttered with the hope and the fear of seeing my mother, and
with the shame and grief of having given her so much uneasiness. But
it needed not: she was not permitted to come. But my aunt was so good
as to return, yet not without my sister; and, taking my hand, made me
sit down by her.

She came, she must own, officiously, she said, this once more, though
against the opinion of my father: but knowing and dreading the
consequence of my opposition, she could not but come.

She then set forth to my friends' expectation from me; Mr. Solmes's
riches (three times as rich he came out to be, as any body had thought
him); the settlements proposed; Mr. Lovelace's bad character; their
aversions to him; all in a very strong light; not in a stronger than
my mother had before placed them in. My mother, surely, could not