LETTER LV. Clarissa to Miss Norton.—Excuses her long silence. Asks her a question, with a view to detect Lovelace. Hints at his ungrateful villany. Self-recrimination.
LETTER LVI. Mrs. Norton to Clarissa.—Answers her question. Inveighs against Lovelace. Hopes she has escaped with her honour. Consoles her by a brief relation of her own case, and from motives truly pious.
LETTER LVII. Clarissa to Lady Betty Lawrance.—Requests an answer to three questions, with a view farther to detect Lovelace.
LETTER LVIII. Lady Betty to Clarissa.—Answers her questions. In the kindest manner offers to mediate between her nephew and her.
LETTER LIX. LX. Clarissa to Mrs. Hodges, her uncle Harlowe’s housekeeper; with a view of still farther detecting Lovelace.—Mrs. Hodges’s answer.
LETTER LXI. Clarissa to Lady Betty Lawrance.—Acquaints her with her nephew’s baseness. Charitably wishes his reformation; but utterly, and from principle, rejects him.
LETTER LXII. Clarissa to Mrs. Norton.—Is comforted by her kind soothings. Wishes she had been her child. Will not allow her to come up to her; why. Some account of the people she is with; and of a worthy woman, Mrs. Lovick, who lodges in the house. Briefly hints to her the vile usage she has received from Lovelace.
LETTER LXIII. Mrs. Norton to Clarissa.—Inveighs against Lovelace. Wishes Miss Howe might be induced to refrain from freedoms that do hurt, and can do no good. Farther piously consoles her.
LETTER LXIV. Clarissa to Mrs. Norton.—A new trouble. An angry letter from Miss Howe. The occasion. Her heart is broken. Shall be uneasy, till she can get her father’s curse revoked. Casts about to whom she can apply for this purpose. At last resolves to write to her sister to beg her mediation.
LETTER LXV. Miss Howe to Clarissa.—Her angry and reproachful letter above-mentioned; demands from her the clearing up of her conduct.