rity was that! What a poor piece
of barbarity! in order to obtain by terror, what thou dispairedst to gain
by love, though supported by stratagems the most insidious!

O LOVELACE! LOVELACE! had I doubted it before, I should now be
convinced, that there must be a WORLD AFTER THIS, to do justice to
injured merit, and to punish barbarous perfidy! Could the divine
SOCRATES, and the divine CLARISSA, otherwise have suffered?

But let me, if possible, for one moment, try to forget this villanous
outrage on the most excellent of women.

I have business here which will hold me yet a few days; and then perhaps
I shall quit this house for ever.

I have had a solemn and tedious time of it. I should never have known
that I had half the respect I really find I had for the old gentleman,
had I not so closely, at his earnest desire, attended him, and been a
witness of the tortures he underwent.

This melancholy occasion may possibly have contributed to humanize me:
but surely I never could have been so remorseless a caitiff as thou hast
been, to a woman of half this lady's excellence.

But pr'ythee, dear Lovelace, if thou'rt a man, and not a devil, resolve,
out of hand, to repair thy sin of ingratitude, by conferring upon thyself
the highest honour thou canst receive, in making her lawfully thine.

But if thou canst not prevail upon thyself to do her this justice, I
think I should not scruple a tilt with thee, [an everlasting rupture at
least must follow] if thou sacrificest her to the accursed women.

Thou art desirous to know what advantage I reap by my uncle's demise. I
do not certainly know; for I have not been so greedily solicitous on this
subject as some of the kindred have been, who ought to have shown more
decency, as I have told them, and suffered the corpse to have been cold
before they had begun their hungry inquiries. But, by what I gathered
from the poor man's talk to me, who oftener than I wished touched upon
the subject, I deem it will be upwards of 5000L. in cash, and in the
funds, after all legacies paid, besides the real estate, which is a clear
1000L. a-year.

I wish, from my heart, thou wert a money-lover! Were the estate to be of
double the value, thou shouldst have it every shilling; only upon one
condition [for my circumstances before were as easy as I wish them to be
while I am single]--that thou wouldst permit me the honour of being this
fatherless lady's father, as it is called, at the altar.