LETTER VI
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE WEDN. NIGHT, MARCH 22.
On the report made by my aunt and sister of my obstinacy, my assembledrelations have taken an unanimous resolution (as Betty tells me itis) against me. This resolution you will find signified to me in theinclosed letter from my brother, just now brought me. Be pleased toreturn it, when perused. I may have occasion for it, in the altercationsbetween my relations and me.
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MISS CLARY,
I am commanded to let you know, that my father and uncles having heardyour aunt Hervey's account of all that has passed between her and you:having heard from your sister what sort of treatment she has had fromyou: having recollected all that has passed between your mother andyou: having weighed all your pleas and proposals: having taken intoconsideration their engagements with Mr. Solmes; that gentleman'spatience, and great affection for you; and the little opportunity youhave given yourself to be acquainted either with his merit, or hisproposals: having considered two points more; to wit, the woundedauthority of a father; and Mr. Solmes's continued entreaties (littleas you have deserved regard from him) that you may be freed from aconfinement to which he is desirous to attribute your perverseness tohim [averseness I should have said, but let it go], he being unable toaccount otherwise for so strong a one, supposing you told truth to yourmother, when you asserted that your heart was free; and which Mr. Solmesis willing to believe, though nobody else does--For all these reasons,it is resolved, that you shall go to your uncle Antony's: and you mustaccordingly prepare yourself to do so. You will have but short notice ofthe day, for obvious reasons.
I will honestly tell you the motive for your going: it is a double one;first, That they may be sure, that you shall not correspond with anybody they do not like (for they find from Mrs. Howe, that, by some meansor other, you do correspond with her daughter; and, through her, perhapswith somebody else): and next, That you may receive the visits of Mr.Solmes; which you have thought fit to refuse to do here; by which meansyou have deprived yourself of the opportunity of knowing whom and whatyou have hitherto refused.
If after one fortnight's conversation with Mr. Solmes, and afteryou have heard what your friends shall further urge in his behalf,unhardened by clandestine correspondencies, you shall convince them,that Virgil's amor omnibus idem (for the application of which I referyou to the Georgic as translated by Dryden) is verified in you, as wellas in the rest of the animal creation; and that you cannot, or willnot forego your prepossession in favour of the moral, the virtuous,the pious Lovelace, [I would please you if I could!] it will then beconsidered, whether to humour you, or to renounce you for ever.
It is hoped, that as you must go, you will go cheerfully. Your uncleAntony will make ever thing at his house agreeable to you. But indeed hewon't promise, that he will not, at proper times, draw up the bridge.
Your visiters, besides Mr. Solmes, will be myself, if you permit me thathonour, Miss Clary; your sister; and, as you behave to Mr. Solmes, youraunt Hervey, and your uncle Harlowe; and yet the two latter willhardly come neither, if they think it will be to hear your whiningvocatives.--Betty Barnes will be your attendant: and I must needs tellyou, Miss, that we none of us think the worse of the faithful maid foryour dislike of her: although Betty, who would be glad to oblige you,laments it as a misfortune.
Your answer is required, whether you cheerfully consent to go? And yourindulgent mother bids me remind you from her, that a fortnight's visitfrom Mr. Solmes, are all that is meant at present.
I am, as you shall be pleased to deserve, Yours, &c. JAMES HARLOWE, JUN.
So here is the master-stroke of my brother's policy! Called upon toconsent to go to my uncle Antony's avowedly to receive Mr. Solmes'svisits!--A chapel! A moated-house!--Deprived of the opportunity ofcorresponding with you!--or of any possibility of escape, shouldviolence be used to compel me to be that odious man's!*
* These violent measures, and the obstinate perseverance of the whole family in them, will be the less wondered at, when it is considered, that all the time they were but as so many puppets danced upon Mr. Lovelace's wires, as he boasts, Vol. I. Letter XXXI.
Late as it was when I received this insolent letter, I wrote an answerto it directly, that it might be ready for the writer's time of rising.I inclose the rough draught of it. You will see by it how much his vilehint from the Georgic; and his rude one of my whining vocatives, haveset me up. Besides, as the command to get ready to go to my uncle's isin the name of my father and uncles, it is but to shew a piece of theart they accuse me of, to resent the vile hint I have so much reason toresent in order to palliate my refusal of preparing to go to my uncle's;which refusal would otherwise be interpreted an act of rebellion by mybrother and sister: for it seems plain to me, that they will work buthalf their ends, if they do not deprive me of my father's and uncles'favour, even although it were possible for me to comply with their ownterms.
You might have told me, Brother, in three lines, what the determinationof my friends was; only, that then you would not have had room todisplay your pedantry by so detestable an allusion or reference to theGeorgic. Give me leave to tell you, Sir, that if humanity were a branchof your studies at the university, it has not found a genius in you formastering it. Nor is either my sex or myself, though a sister, I seeentitled to the least decency from a brother, who has studied, as itseems, rather to cultivate the malevolence of his natural temper,than any tendency which one might have hoped his parentage, if not hiseducation, might have given him to a tolerable politeness.
I doubt not, that you will take amiss my freedom: but as you havedeserved it from me, I shall be less and less concerned on that score,as I see you are more and more intent to shew your wit at the expense ofjustice and compassion.
The time is indeed come that I can no longer bear those contempts andreflections which a brother, least of all men, is entitled to give. Andlet me beg of you one favour, Sir:--It is this, That you will not giveyourself any concern about a husband for me, till I shall have theforwardness to propose a wife to you. Pardon me, Sir; but I cannothelp thinking, that could I have the art to get my father of my side, Ishould have as much right to prescribe for you, as you have for me.
As to the communication you make me, I must take upon me to say, Thatalthough I will receive, as becomes me, any of my father's commands;yet, as this signification is made by a brother, who has shewn of lateso much of an unbrotherly animosity to me, (for no reason in the worldthat I know if, but that he believes he has, in me, one sister too muchfor his interest,) I think myself entitled to conclude, that such aletter as you have sent me, is all your own: and of course to declare,that, while I so think it, I will not willingly, nor even withoutviolence, go to any place, avowedly to receive Mr. Solmes's visits.
I think myself so much entitled to resent your infamous hint, and thisas well for the sake of my sex, as for my own, that I ought to declare,as I do, that I will not receive any more of your letters, unlesscommanded to do so by an authority I never will dispute; except in acase where I think my future as well as present happiness concerned: andwere such a case to happen, I am sure my father's harshness will be lessowing to himself than to you; and to the specious absurdities of yourambitious and selfish schemes.--Very true, Sir!
One word more, provoked as I am, I will add: That had I been thought asreally obstinate and perverse as of late I am said to be, I should nothave been so disgracefully treated as I have been--Lay your hand uponyour heart, Brother, and say, By whose instigations?--And examine what Ihave done to deserve to be made thus unhappy, and to be obliged to stylemyself
Your injured sister, CL. HARLOWE.
When, my dear, you have read my answer to my brother's letter, tell mewhat you think of me?--It shall go!