Chapter 8
letter eight of clarissa harlowe or the history of a young lady vol iii mr lovelace to john belford esq wednesday july twelfth so jack they think they have gained a mighty point but were i to change my mind were i to repent i fancy i am safe and yet this very moment it rises to my mind that tis hard trusting too for surely there must be some embers where there was fire so lately that may be stirred up to give a blaze to combustibles strewed lightly upon them love like some self-propagating plants or roots which have taken strong hold in the earth when once got deep into the heart is hardly ever totally extirpated except by matrimony indeed which is the grave of love because it allows of the end of love and these ladies all advocates for herself with herself miss howe at the head perhaps not in favour to me i don't expect that from miss howe but perhaps in favour to herself for miss howe has reason to apprehend vengeance from me irene her hickman will be safe too as she may think if i marry her beloved friend for he has been a busy fellow and i have long wished to have a slap at him the lady's case desperate with her friends too and likely to be so while single and her character exposed to
a husband is a charming cloak a fig-leaved apron for a wife and for a lady to be protected in liberties in diversions which her heart pants after and all her faults even the most criminal were she to be detected to be thrown upon the husband and the ridicule too a charming privilege for a wife but i shall have one comfort by marry which pleases me not a little if a man's wife has a dear friend of her sex a hundred liberties may be taken with that friend which could not be taken if the single lady knowing what a title to freedoms marriage had given him with her friend was not less scrupulous with him than she ought to be as to herself then there are broad freedoms shall i call them that may be taken by the husband with his wife that may not be quite shocking which if the wife bears before her friends will serve for a lesson to that friend and if that friend bears to be present at them without check or bashfulness will show a sagacious fellow that she can bear as much herself at proper time and place chastity jack like piety is an uniform thing if in look if in speech a girl give way to undue liberty depend upon it the devil has got one of his cloven feet in her heart already so hickman take care of thyself i advise thee whether i marry or not thus jack have i at once reconciled myself to all my relations and if the lady refuses me thrown the fault upon her this i knew would be my power to do at any time and i was the more arrogant to them in order to heighten the merit of my compliance
but after all it would be very whimsical would it not if all my plots and contrivances should end in wedlock what a punishment should this come out to be upon myself too that all this while i have been plundering my own treasury can there be so much harm done if it can be so easily repaired by a few magical words as i robert take thee clarissa and i clarissa take thee robert with the rest of the for better and for worse ledger domain which will hocus-pocus all the wrongs the crying wrongs that i have done to miss harlow into acts of kindness and benevolence to mrs lovelace but jack two things i must insist upon with thee if this to be the case having put secrets of so high a nature between me and my spouse into thy power i must for my own honour and for the honour of my wife and illustrious progeny first oblige thee to give up the letters i have so profusely scribbled to thee and in the next place do by thee as i have heard whispered in france was done by the true father of a certain monarch that is to say, cut thy throat, to prevent thy telling of tales.
I have found means to heighten the kind opinion my friends here have begun to have of me, by communicating to them the contents of the four last letters which I wrote to press my elected spouse to solemnize. My lord repeated one of his phrases in my favor, that he hopes it will come out, that the devil is not quite so black as he is painted. Now, prithee, dear Jack, since so many good consequences are to flow from these unuptials,
one of which to thyself since the sooner thou diest the less thou wilt have to answer for and that i now and then am apt to believe there may be something in the old fellow's notion who once told us that he who kills a man has all that man sins to answer for as well as his own because he gave him not the time to repent of them that heaven designed to allow him a fine thing for thee if thou consentest to be knocked off the head but a cursed one for the manslayer and since there may be room to fear that miss howe will not give us her help with thee now exert thyself to find out my clarissa harlowe that i may make a lovelace of her set all the city bellmen and the country choirs for ten miles round the metropolis at work with their oyes and if any man woman or child can give tale or tidings advertise her in all the newspapers and let her know that if she will repair to lady betty lawrence or to miss charlotte montague she may hear of something greatly to her advantage my two cousins montague are actually to set out to-morrow to mrs howe's to engage her vixen daughter's interest with her friend they will flaunt it away in a chariot and six for the great estate and significance confounded mortification to be reduced this low my pride hardly knows how to brook it lord m has engaged the two venerables to stay here to attend the issue and i standing very high at present in their good graces am to gallant them to oxford to blenheim and to several other places
