Chapter 54
CLARISSA HARLOE, VOLUME 3, BY SAMUEL RICHARDSON LETTER 54 Miss Clarissa Harlow to Miss Howe, Saturday afternoon, April 22nd O my best, my only friend, now indeed is my heart broken. It has received a blow it never will recover.
think not of corresponding with the wretch who now seems absolutely devoted how can it be otherwise if a parent's curses have the weight i always attributed to them and have heard so many instances in confirmation of that weight yes my dear miss how super added to all my afflictions I have the consequences of a father's curse to struggle with. How shall I support this reflection, my past and my present situation so much authorizing my apprehensions?
I have at last a letter from my unrelenting sister. Would to heaven I had not provoked it by my second letter to my Aunt Harvey. It lay ready for me, it seems. The thunder slept till I awakened it. I enclose the letter itself. Transcribe it. I cannot. There is no bearing the thoughts of it. For, shocking reflection, the curse extends to the life beyond this. I am in the depth of vaporish despondency.
I can only repeat, shun, fly, correspond not with a wretch so devoted as Clarissa Harlow. End of Letter 54
