O my dear lady! how many opportunities have the beneficent rich to make themselves, as well as their fellow-creatures, happy!  All that I could think, or say, or act, was but my duty before; what a sense of obligation then must I lie under to this most generous of men!

But here let me put an end to this tedious subject; the principal part of which can have no excuse, if it may not serve as a proof of my cheerful compliance with your ladyship’s commands, that I recite every thing of concern to me, and with the same freedom as I used to do to my dear parents.

I have done it, and at the same time offered what I had to plead in behalf of my conduct to the two housekeepers, which you expected from me; and I shall therefore close this my humble defence, if I may so call it, with the assurance that I am, my dearest lady, your obliged and faithful servant,

P.B.

LETTER XIX

From Lady Davers to Mrs. B. in answer to the six last Letters.

“Where she had it, I can’t tell I but I think I never met with the fellow of her in my life, at any age;” are, as I remember, my brother’s words, speaking of his Pamela in the early part of your papers.  In truth, thou art a surprising creature; and every letter we have from you, we have new subjects to admire you for.—­“Do you think, Lady Betty,” said I, when I had read to the end of the subject about Mrs. Jervis, “I will not soon set out to hit this charming girl a box of the ear or two?”—­“For what, Lady Davers?” said she.

“For what!” replied I.—­“Why, don’t you see how many slaps of the face the bold slut hits me! I’ll LADY-AIRS her!  I will. I’ll teach her to reproach me, and so many of her betters, with her cottage excellencies, and improvements, that shame our education.”

Why, you dear charming Pamela, did you only excel me in words, I could forgive you:  for there may be a knack, and a volubility, as to words, that a natural talent may supply; but to be thus out-done in thought and in deed, who can bear it?  And in so young an insulter too!

Well, Pamela, look to it, when I see you:  you shall feel the weight of my hand, or—­the pressure of my lip, one or t’other, depend on it, very quickly; for here, instead of my stooping, as I thought I would be, to call you sister, I shall be forced to think, in a little while, that you ought not to own me as yours, till I am nearer your standard.

But to come to business, I will summarily take notice of the following particulars in all your obliging letters, in order to convince you of my friendship, by the freedom of my observations on the subjects you touch upon.