I write her one more letter; and if, after she has received that, she keeps sullen silence, she must thank herself for what is to follow.

But, after all,, my heart is not wholly her’s.  I love her beyond expression; and cannot help it.  I hope therefore she will receive this last tender as I wish.  I hope she intends not, like a true woman, to plague, and vex, and tease me, now she has found her power.  If she will take me to mercy now these remorses are upon me, (though I scorn to condition with thee for my sincerity,) all her trials, as I have heretofore declared, shall be over, and she shall be as happy as I can make her:  for, ruminating upon all that has passed between us, from the first hour of our acquaintance till the present, I must pronounce, That she is virtue itself and once more I say, has no equal.

As to what you hint, of leaving to her choice another day, do you consider, that it will be impossible that my contrivances and stratagems should be much longer concealed?—­This makes me press that day, though so near; and the more, as I have made so much ado about her uncle’s anniversary.  If she send me the four words, I will spare no fatigue to be in time, if not for the canonical hour at church, for some other hour of the day in her own apartment, or any other:  for money will do every thing:  and that I have never spared in this affair.

To show thee, that I am not at enmity with thee, I enclose the copies of two letters—­one to her:  it is the fourth, and must be the last on the subject——­The other to Captain Tomlinson; calculated, as thou wilt see, for him to show her.

And now, Jack, interfere; in this case or not, thou knowest the mind of

R. Lovelace.

LETTER XLIII

Mr. Lovelace, to miss Clarissa Harlowe [SUPERSCRIBED to Mrs. Lovelace.] M. Hall, wed. Morning, one o’clock, June 28.

Not one line, my dearest life, not one word, in answer to three letters I have written!  The time is now so short, that this must be the last letter that can reach you on this side the important hour that might make us legally one.

My friend, Mr. Belford, is apprehensive, that he cannot wait upon you in time, by reason of some urgent affairs of his own.

I the less regret the disappointment, because I have procured a more acceptable person, as I hope, to attend you; Captain Tomlinson I mean:  to whom I had applied for this purpose, before I had Mr. Belford’s answer.

I was the more solicitous to obtain his favour form him, because of the office he is to take upon him, as I humbly presume to hope, to-morrow.  That office obliged him to be in town as this day:  and I acquainted him with my unhappy situation with you; and desired that he would show me, on this occasion, that I had as much of his favour and friendship as your uncle had; since the whole treaty must be broken off, if he could not prevail upon you in my behalf.