sign that
thou may'st have her if thou wilt. And yet, till she has given me this
unerring demonstration of her glancing towards thee, I could not have
thought it. Indeed I have often in pleasantry told her that I would
bring such an affair to bear. But I never intended it; because she
really is a dainty girl; and thou art such a clumsy fellow in thy person,
that I should as soon have wished her a rhinoceros for a husband as thee.
But, poor little dears! they must stay till their time's come! They
won't have this man, and they won't have that man, from seventeen to
twenty-five: but then, afraid, as the saying is, that God has forgot
them, and finding their bloom departing, they are glad of whom they can
get, and verify the fable of the parson and the pears.

LETTER XLI

MR. BRAND, TO JOHN HARLOWE, ESQ.
[ENCLOSED IN THE PRECEDING.]

WORTHY SIR, MY VERY GOOD FRIEND AND PATRON,

I arrived in town yesterday, after a tolerably pleasant journey
(considering the hot weather and dusty roads). I put up at the Bull and
Gate in Holborn, and hastened to Covent-garden. I soon found the house
where the unhappy lady lodgeth. And, in the back shop, had a good deal
of discourse* with Mrs. Smith, (her landlady,) whom I found to be so
'highly prepossessed'** in her 'favour,' that I saw it would not answer
your desires to take my informations 'altogether' from her: and being
obliged to attend my patron, (who to my sorrow,

* See Vol. VII. Letter LXXXI.
** Transcriber's note: Mr. Brand's letters are characterized by a style
that makes excessive use of italics for emphasis. Although in the
remainder of _Clarissa_ I have largely disregarded italics for the sake
of plain-text formatting, this style makes such emphatic use of italics
that I have indicated all such instances in his letters by placing the
italicized words and phrases in quotations, thus ' '.

'Miserum et aliena vivere quadra,')

I find wanteth much waiting upon, and is 'another' sort of man than he
was at college: for, Sir, 'inter nos,' 'honours change manners.' For the
'aforesaid causes,' I thought it would best answer all the ends of the
commission with which you honoured me, to engage, in the desired
scrutiny, the wife of a 'particular friend,' who liveth almost
over-against the house where she lodgeth, and who is a gentlewoman of
'character,' and 'sobriety,' a 'mother of children,' and one who
'knoweth' the 'world' well.

To her I applied m