Read Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 3 Page 36

  LETTER XXXIV

  MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE [IN CONTINUATION.] MONDAY MORNING, APRIL 17.

  Late as I went to bed, I have had very little rest. Sleep and I havequarreled; and although I court it, it will not be friends. I hope itsfellow-irreconcilables at Harlowe-place enjoy its balmy comforts. Elsethat will be an aggravation of my fault. My brother and sister, I daresay, want it not.

  Mr. Lovelace, who is an early riser, as well as I, joined me in thegarden about six; and after the usual salutations, asked me to resumeour last night's subject. It was upon lodgings at London, he said.

  I think you mentioned one to me, Sir--Did you not?

  Yes, Madam, [but, watching the turn of my countenance,] rather as whatyou would be welcome to, than perhaps approve of.

  I believe so too. To go to town upon an uncertainty, I own, is notagreeable: but to be obliged to any persons of your acquaintance, whenI want to be thought independent of you; and to a person, especially, towhom my friends are to direct to me, if they vouchsafe to take notice ofme at all, is an absurd thing to mention.

  He did not mention it as what he imagined I would accept, but only toconfirm to me what he had said, that he himself knew of none fit for me.

  Has not your family, Madam, some one tradesman they deal with, who hasconveniences of this kind? I would make it worth such a person's whileto keep his secret of your being at his house. Traders are dealers inpins, said he, and will be more obliged by a penny customer, than by apound present, because it is in their way: yet will refuse neither, anymore than a lawyer or a man of office his fee.

  My father's tradesmen, I said, would, no doubt, be the first employed tofind me out. So that that proposal was as wrong as the other. And whois it that a creature so lately in favour with all her friends can applyto, in such a situation as mine, but must be (at least) equally thefriends of her relations.

  We had a good deal of discourse upon the same topic. But, at last, theresult was this--He wrote a letter to one Mr. Doleman, a married man,of fortune and character, (I excepting to Mr. Belford,) desiring himto provide decent apartments ready furnished [I had told him what theyshould be] for a single woman; consisting of a bed-chamber; another fora maidservant; with the use of a dining-room or parlour. This letter hegave me to peruse; and then sealed it up, and dispatched it away in mypresence, by one of his own servants, who, having business in town, isto bring back an answer.

  I attend the issue of it; holding myself in readiness to set out forLondon, unless you, my dear, advise the contrary.