him for past conduct, in order to be able to meet him somewhere else with
the less concern to yourself for your freedoms with him, he shall attend
you where you please.

If you have a mind to read the settlements, before they are read to you
for your signing, they shall be sent you up--Who knows, but they will
help you to some fresh objections?--Your heart is free, you know--It
must--For, did you not tell your mother it was? And will the pious
Clarissa fib to her mamma?

I desire no reply. The case requires none. Yet I will ask you, Have you,
Miss, no more proposals to make?


***


I was so vexed when I came to the end of this letter, (the postscript to
which, perhaps, might be written after the others had seen the letter,)
that I took up my pen, with an intent to write to my uncle Harlowe about
resuming my own estate, in pursuance of your advice. But my heart failed
me, when I recollected, that I had not one friend to stand by or support
me in my claim; and it would but the more incense them, without answering
any good end. Oh! that my cousin were but come!

Is it not a sad thing, beloved as I thought myself so lately by every
one, that now I have not one person in the world to plead for me, to
stand by me, or who would afford me refuge, were I to be under the
necessity of asking for it!--I who had the vanity to think I had as many
friends as I saw faces, and flattered myself too, that it was not