not beg pardon for my capital errors
without doing it in such terms as shall be an aggravation of the offence.

But I had best leave off, lest, as my full mind, I find, is rising to my
pen, I have other pardons to beg as I multiply lines, where none at all
will be given.

God Almighty bless, preserve, and comfort my dear sorrowing and
grievously offended father and mother!--and continue in honour, favour,
and merit, my happy sister!--May God forgive my brother, and protect him
from the violence of his own temper, as well as from the destroyer of his
sister's honour!--And may you, my dear uncle, and your no less now than
ever dear brother, my second papa, as he used to bid me call him, be
blessed and happy in them, and in each other!--And, in order to this, may
you all speedily banish from your remembrance, for ever,

The unhappy
CLARISSA HARLOWE!

LETTER V

MRS. NORTON, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE
MONDAY, AUG. 14.

All your friends here, my dear young lady, now seem set upon proposing to
you to go to one of the plantations. This, I believe, is owing to some
misrepresentations of Mr. Brand; from whom they have received a letter.

I wish, with all my heart, that you could, consistently with your own
notions of honour, yield to the pressing requests of all Mr. Lovelace's
family in his behalf. This, I think, would stop every mouth; and, in
time, reconcile every body to you. For your own friends will not believe
that he is in earnest to marry you; and the hatred between the families
is such, that they will not condescend to inform themselves better; nor
would believe him, if he were ever so solemnly to avow that he is.

I should be very glad to have in readiness, upon occasion, some brief
particulars of your sad story under your own hand. But let me tell you,
at the same time, that no misrepresentations, nor even your own
confession, shall lessen my opinion either of your piety, or of your
prudence in essential points; because I know it was always your humble
way to make light faults heavy against yourself: and well might you, my
dearest young lady, aggravate your own failings, who have ever had so
few; and those few so slight, that your ingenuousness has turned most of
them into excellencies.

Nevertheless, let me advise you, my dear Miss Clary, to discountenance
any visits, which, with the censorious, may affect your character. As
that has not hitherto suffered by your wilful default, I hope you will
no