Cl.  O Mrs. Moore!  O Miss Rawlins! you know not the man!  I wish not to see his face, nor to exchange another word with him as long as I live.

Mrs. Moore.  I don’t find, Miss Rawlins, that the gentleman has misrepresented any thing.  You see, Madam, [to my Clarissa,] how respectful he is; not to come in till permitted.  He certainly loves you dearly.  Pray, Madam, let him talk to you, as he wishes to do, on the subject of his letters.

Very kind of Mrs. Moore!—­Mrs. Moore, thought I, is a very good woman.  I did not curse her then.

Miss Rawlins said something; but so low that I could not hear what it was.  Thus it was answered.

Cl.  I am greatly distressed!  I know not what to do!—­But, Mrs. Moore, be so good as to give his letters to him—­here they are.—­Be pleased to tell him, that I wish him and Lady Betty and Miss Montague a happy meeting.  He never can want excuses to them for what has happened, any more than pretences to those he would delude.  Tell him, that he has ruined me in the opinion of my own friends.  I am for that reason the less solicitous how I appear to his.

Mrs. Moore then came to me; and I, being afraid that something would pass mean time between the other two, which I should not like, took the letters, and entered the room, and found them retired into the closet; my beloved whispering with an air of earnestness to Miss Rawlins, who was all attention.

Her back was towards me; and Miss Rawlins, by pulling her sleeve, giving intimation of my being there—­Can I have no retirement uninvaded, Sir, said she, with indignation, as if she were interrupted in some talk her heart was in?—­What business have you here, or with me?—­You have your letters; have you not?

Lovel.  I have, my dear; and let me beg of you to consider what you are about.  I every moment expect Captain Tomlinson here.  Upon my soul, I do.  He has promised to keep from your uncle what has happened:  but what will he think if he find you hold in this strange humour?

Cl.  I will endeavour, Sir, to have patience with you for a moment or two, while I ask you a few questions before this lady, and before Mrs. Moore, [who just then came in,] both of whom you have prejudiced in your favour by your specious stories:—­Will you say, Sir, that we are married together?  Lay your hand upon your heart, and answer me, am I your wedded wife?

I am gone too far, thought I, to give up for such a push as this, home one as it is.

My dearest soul! how can you put such a question?  It is either for your honour or my own, that it should be doubted?—­Surely, surely, Madam, you cannot have attended to the contents of Captain Tomlinson’s letter.

She complained often of want of spirits throughout our whole contention, and of weakness of person and mind, from the fits she had been thrown into:  but little reason had she for this complaint, as I thought, who was able to hold me to it, as she did.  I own that I was excessively concerned for her several times.