I had not been a moment by myself, but I was sensible that I had half forfeited my newly-a.s.sumed character. It is exceedingly difficult, thou seest, for an honest man to act in disguises: as the poet says, Thrust Nature back with a pitchfork, it will return. I recollected, that what she had insisted upon was really a part of that declared will before she left her father"s house, to which in another case (to humble her) I had pretended to have an inviolable regard. And when I had remembered her words of taking her measures accordingly, I was resolved to sacrifice a leg or an arm to make all up again, before she had time to determine upon any new measures.
How seasonably to this purpose have come in my aunt"s and cousin"s letters!
I have sent in again and again to implore her to admit me to her presence. But she will conclude a letter she is writing to Miss Howe, before she will see me.--I suppose to give her an account of what has just pa.s.sed.
Curse upon her perverse tyranny! How she makes me wait for an humble audience, though she has done writing for some time! A prince begging for her upon his knees should not prevail upon me to spare her, if I can but get her to London--Oons! Jack, I believe I have bit my lip through for vexation!--But one day her"s shall smart for it.
Mr. Lovelace, beginning a new date, gives an account of his admittance, and of the conversation that followed: which differing only in style from that of the Lady gives in the next letter is omitted.
He collects the lady"s expressions, which his pride cannot bear: such as, That he is a stranger to the decorums which she thought inseparable from a man of birth and education; and that he is not the accomplished man he imagines himself to be; and threatens to remember them against her.
He values himself upon his proposals and speeches, which he gives to his friend pretty much to the same purpose that the Lady does in her four last letters.
After mentioning his proposal to her that she would borrow a servant from Miss Howe, till Hannah could come, he writes as follows:
Thou seest, Belford, that my charmer has no notion that Miss Howe herself is but a puppet danced upon my wires at second or third hand. To outwit, and impel, as I please, two such girls as these, who think they know every thing; and, by taking advantage of the pride and ill-nature of the old ones of both families, to play them off likewise at the very time they think they are doing me spiteful displeasure; what charming revenge!--Then the sweet creature, when I wished that her brother was not at the bottom of Mrs. Howe"s resentment, to tell me, that she was afraid he was, or her uncle would not have appeared against her to that lady!--Pretty dear! how innocent!
But don"t think me the cause neither of her family"s malice and resentment. It is all in their hearts. I work but with their materials.
They, if left to their own wicked direction, would perhaps express their revenge by fire and f.a.ggot; that is to say, by the private dagger, or by Lord Chief Justices" warrants, by law, and so forth: I only point the lightning, and teach it where to dart, without the thunder. In other words, I only guide the effects: the cause is in their malignant hearts: and while I am doing a little mischief, I prevent a great deal.
Thus he exults on her mentioning London:
I wanted her to propose London herself. This made me again mention Windsor. If you would have a woman do one thing, you must always propose another, and that the very contrary: the s.e.x! the very s.e.x! as I hope to be saved!--Why, Jack, they lay a man under a necessity to deal doubly with them! And, when they find themselves outwitted, they cry out upon an honest fellow, who has been too hard for them at their own weapons.
I could hardly contain myself. My heart was at my throat.--Down, down, said I to myself, exuberant exultation! A sudden cough befriended me; I again turned to her, all as indifferenced over as a girl at the first long-expected question, who waits for two more. I heard out the rest of her speech: and when she had done, instead of saying any thing to her for London, I advised her to send for Mrs. Norton.
As I knew she would be afraid of lying under obligation, I could have proposed to do so much for the good woman and her son, as would have made her resolve that I should do nothing: this, however, not merely to avoid expense. But there was no such thing as allowing of the presence of Mrs. Norton. I might as well have had her mother or her aunt Hervey with her. Hannah, had she been able to come, and had she actually come, I could have done well enough with. What do I keep fellows idling in the country for, but to fall in love, and even to marry those whom I would have them marry? Nor, upon second thoughts, would the presence of her Norton, or of her aunt, or even of her mother, have saved the dear creature, had I decreed her fall.
How unequal is a modest woman to the adventure, when she throws herself into the power of a rake! Punctilio will, at any time, stand for reason with such an one. She cannot break through a well-tested modesty. None but the impudent little rogues, who can name the parson and the church before you think of either, and undress and go to bed before you the next hour, should think of running away with a man.
I am in the right train now. Every hour, I doubt not, will give me an increasing interest in the affections of this proud beauty. I have just carried unpoliteness far enough to make her afraid of me; and to shew her, that I am no whiner. Every instance of politeness, now, will give me double credit with her. My next point will be to make her acknowledge a lambent flame, a preference of me to all other men, at least: and then my happy hour is not far off. An acknowledged reciprocality in love sanctifies every little freedom: and little freedoms beget greater.
And if she call me ungenerous, I can call her cruel. The s.e.x love to be called cruel. Many a time have I complained of cruelty, even in the act of yielding, because I knew it gratified the fair one"s pride.
Mentioning that he had only hinted at Mr. Belford"s lodgings as an instance to confirm what he had told her, that he knew of none in London fit for her, he says,
I had a mind to alarm her with something furthest from my purpose; for (as much as she disliked my motion) I intend nothing by it: Mrs. Osgood is too pious a woman; and would have been more her friend than mine.
I had a view, moreover, to give her an high opinion of her own sagacity.
I love, when I dig a put, to have my prey tumble in with secure feet, and open eyes: then a man can look down upon her, with an O-ho, charmer, how came you there?
MONDAY, APRIL 17.
I have just now received a fresh piece of intelligence from my agent, honest Joseph Leman. Thou knowest the history of poor Miss Betterton of Nottingham. James Harlowe is plotting to revive the resentments of her family against me. The Harlowes took great pains, some time ago, to endeavour to get to the bottom of that story. But now the foolish devils are resolved to do something in it, if they can. My head is working to make this b.o.o.by "squire a plotter, and a clever fellow, in order to turn his plots to my advantage, supposing his sister shall aim to keep me at arm"s length when in town, and to send me from her. But I will, in proper time, let thee see Joseph"s letter, and what I shall answer to it.* To know in time a designed mischief, is, with me, to disappoint it, and to turn it upon the contriver"s head.
* See Letters XLVII., XLVIII. of this volume.
Joseph is plaguy squeamish again; but I know he only intends by his qualms to swell his merits with me. O Belford! Belford! what a vile corruptible rogue, whether in poor or rich, is human nature!
LETTER x.x.xVI
MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE [IN ANSWER TO LETTERS XXVIII.--x.x.xIV. INCLUSIVE.] TUESDAY, APRIL 18.
You have a most implacable family. Another visit from your uncle Antony has not only confirmed my mother an enemy to our correspondence, but has almost put her upon treading in their steps.--
But to other subjects:
You plead generously for Mr. Hickman. Perhaps, with regard to him, I may have done, as I have often done in singing--begun a note or key too high; and yet, rather than begin again, proceed, though I strain my voice, or spoil my tune. But this is evident, the man is the more observant for it; and you have taught me, that the spirit which is the humbler for ill usage, will be insolent upon better. So, good and grave Mr. Hickman, keep your distance a little longer, I beseech you. You have erected an altar to me; and I hope you will not refuse to bow to it.
But you ask me, if I would treat Mr. Lovelace, were he to be in Mr.
Hickman"s place, as I do Mr. Hickman? Why really, my dear, I believe I should not.--I have been very sagely considering this point of behaviour (in general) on both sides in courtship; and I will very candidly tell you the result. I have concluded, that politeness, even to excess, is necessary on the men"s part, to bring us to listen to their first addresses, in order to induce us to bow our necks to a yoke so unequal.
But, upon my conscience, I very much doubt whether a little intermingled insolence is not requisite from them, to keep up that interest, when once it has got footing. Men must not let us see, that we can make fools of them. And I think, that smooth love; that is to say, a pa.s.sion without rubs; in other words, a pa.s.sion without pa.s.sion; is like a sleepy stream that is hardly seen to give motion to a straw. So that, sometimes to make us fear, and even, for a short s.p.a.ce, to hate the wretch, is productive of the contrary extreme.
If this be so, Lovelace, than whom no man was ever more polite and obsequious at the beginning, has. .h.i.t the very point. For his turbulence since, his readiness to offend, and his equal readiness to humble himself, (as must keep a woman"s pa.s.sion alive); and at last tire her into a non-resistance that shall make her as pa.s.sive as a tyrant-husband would wish her to be.
I verily think, that the different behaviour of our two heroes to their heroines make out this doctrine to demonstration. I am so much accustomed, for my own part, to Hickman"s whining, creeping, submissive courtship, that I now expect nothing but whine and cringe from him: and am so little moved with his nonsense, that I am frequently forced to go to my harpsichord, to keep me awake, and to silence his humdrum. Whereas Lovelace keeps up the ball with a witness, and all his address and conversation is one continual game at raquet.
Your frequent quarrels and reconciliations verify this observation: and I really believe, that, could Hickman have kept my attention alive after the Lovelace manner, only that he had preserved his morals, I should have married the man by this time. But then he must have set out accordingly. For now he can never, never recover himself, that"s certain; but must be a dangler to the end of the courtship-chapter; and, what is still worse for him, a pa.s.sive to the end of his life.
Poor Hickman! perhaps you"ll say.
I have been called your echo--Poor Hickman! say I.
You wonder, my dear, that Mr. Lovelace took not notice to you over-night of the letters of Lady Betty and his cousin. I don"t like his keeping such a material and relative circ.u.mstance, as I may call it, one moment from you. By his communicating the contents of them to you next day, when you was angry with him, it looks as if he withheld them for occasional pacifiers; and if so, must he not have had a forethought that he might give you cause for anger? Of all the circ.u.mstances that have happened since you have been with him, I think I like this the least: this alone, my dear, small as it might look to an indifferent eye, in mine warrants all your caution. Yet I think that Mrs. Greme"s letter to her sister Sorlings: his repeated motions for Hannah"s attendance; and for that of one of the widow Sorlings"s daughters; and, above all, for that of Mrs. Norton; are agreeable counterbalances. Were it not for these circ.u.mstances, I should have said a great deal more of the other.
Yet what a foolish fellow, to let you know over-night that he had such letters!--I can"t tell what to make of him.
I am pleased with the contents of these ladies" letters. And the more, as I have caused the family to be again sounded, and find that they are all as desirous as ever of your alliance.