the
least difficulty about raising money to buy the stock, if it be worth
your while to have it.

Betty will likewise then be yours. You have both saved money, it seems.
The whole Harlowe family, whom you have so faithfully served, ['tis
serving them, surely, to prevent the mischief which their violent
son would have brought upon them,] will throw you in somewhat towards
housekeeping. I will still add to your store--so nothing but happiness
before you!

Crow, Joseph, crow!--a dunghill of thy own in view; servants to snub at
thy pleasure; a wife to quarrel with, or to love, as thy humour leads
thee; Landlord and Landlady at every word; to be paid, instead of
paying, for thy eating and drinking. But not thus happy only in thyself:
happy in promoting peace and reconciliation between two good families,
in the long run, without hurting any christian soul. O Joseph, honest
Joseph! what envy wilt thou raise, and who would be squeamish with such
prospects before him.

This one labour, I repeat, crowns the work. If you can get but such a
design entertained by them, whether they prosecute it or not, it will be
equally to the purpose of

Your loving friend, R. LOVELACE.

LETTER XLIX

MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MRS. HERVEY [ENCLOSED IN HER LAST TO MISS
HOWE.] THURSDAY, APRIL 20.

HONOURED MADAM,

Having not had the favour of an answer to a letter I took the liberty
to write to you on the 14th, I am in some hopes that it may have
miscarried: for I had much rather it should, than to have the
mortification to think that my aunt Hervey deemed me unworthy of the
honour of her notice.

In this hope, having kept a copy of it, and not become able to express
myself in terms better suited to the unhappy circumstances of things, I
transcribe and enclose what I then wrote.* And I humbly beseech you to
favour the contents of it with your interest.

* The contents of the Letter referred to are given in Letter XXIV. of
this volume.

Hitherto it is in my power to perform what I undertake for in this
letter; and it would be very grievous to me to be precipitated upon
measures, which may render the desirable reconciliation more difficult.

If, Madam, I were permitted to write to you with the hopes of being
answered, I could clear my intention with regard to the step I have
taken, although I could not perhaps acquit myself to some of my severest
judges, of an imprudence previous to it. You, I am sure, would pity me,