No answer, I beseech you. I hope your messenger will not tell any body that I have written to you. And I dare say you will not show what I have written to Mr. Lovelace—for I have written with the less reserve, depending upon your prudence.
You have my prayers.
My Dolly knows not that I write: nobody does*; not even Mr. Hervey.
* Notwithstanding what Mrs. Hervey here says, it will be hereafter seen
that this severe letter was written in private concert with the
implacable Arabella.
Dolly would have several times written: but having defended your fault with heat, and with a partiality that alarmed us, (such a fall as your's, my dear, must be alarming to all parents,) she has been forbidden, on pain of losing our favour for ever: and this at your family's request, as well as by her father's commands.
You have the poor girl's hourly prayers, I will, however, tell you, though she knows not what I do, as well as those of
Your truly afflicted aunt, D. HERVEY.
FRIDAY, APRIL 21. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
LETTER LIII
MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE [WITH THE PRECEDING.] SAT. MORN. APRIL 22.