that I found there; implanted, no doubt, by the first gracious Planter:
which therefore impel me, as I may say, to act up to them, that thereby
I may, to the best of my judgment, be enabled to comport myself worthily
in both states, (the single and the married), let others act as they will
by me.

I hope, my dear, I do not deceive myself, and, instead of setting about
rectifying what is amiss in my heart, endeavour to find excuses for habits
and peculiarities, which I am unwilling to cast off or overcome.
The heart is very deceitful: do you, my dear friend, lay mine open, [but
surely it is always open before you!] and spare me not, if you think it
culpable.

This observation, once for all, as I said, I thought proper to make, to
convince you that, to the best of my judgment, my errors, in matters as
well of lesser moment as of greater, shall rather be the fault of my
judgment than of my will.

I am, my dearest friend,
Your ever obliged,
CLARISSA HARLOWE.

LETTER XXXII

MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE
TUESDAY NIGHT, MAY 16.

Mr. Lovelace has sent me, by Dorcas, his proposals, as follow:

'To spare a delicacy so extreme, and to obey you, I write: and the rather
that you may communicate this paper to Miss Howe, who may consult any of
her friends you shall think proper to have intrusted on this occasion. I
say intrusted; because, as you know, I have given it out to several
persons, that we are actually married.

'In the first place, Madam, I offer to settle upon you, by way of
jointure, your whole estate: and moreover to vest in trustees such a part
of mine in Lancashire, as shall produce a clear four hundred pounds a
year, to be paid to your sole and separate use quarterly.

'My own estate is a clear not nominnal 2000l. per annum. Lord M.
proposes to give me possession either of that which he has in Lancashire,
[to which, by the way, I think I have a better title than he has
himself,] or that we call The Lawn, in Hertfordshire, upon my nuptials
with a lady whom he so greatly admires; and to make that I shall choose a
clear 1000l. per annum.

'My too great contempt of censure has subjected me to much slander. It
may not therefore be improper to assure you, on the word of a gentleman,
that no part of my estate was ever mortgaged: and that although I lived
very expensively abroad, and made large draughts, yet that Midsummer-day
next will discharge all that I owe in the world. My notions are not all