eartily into the Design of the Author of _Clarissa_, that she dropp'd
the Argument, (tho' she did not seem quite convinc'd that Mr. _Hickman_
could be an agreeable Husband) and with some Earnestness desired
_Bellario_ to tell her, whether he was not now convinced that _Clarissa_
was capable of the strongest Affection, could she but have found the
least Foundation to have built that Affection on: Yes, replied
_Bellario_, I am convinced of it, and am surprised that I did not before
see how much _Lovelace's_ base unmanly Behaviour justifies her in this
Point; he himself, indeed, in the Letter he writes _Belford_ after he
left _England_, lays the whole Scene before us; to his own Condemnation,
and _Clarissa's_ eternal Honour: He owns her meek and gentle Spirit;
confesses he repeatedly, from the first, poured cold Water on her rising
Flame, by meanly and ingratefully turning upon her the Injunctions
which Virgin Delicacy, and filial Duty induced her to lay him under
before he got her into his Power; he quotes her own Words: _That she
could not be guilty of Affectation or Tyranny to the Man she intended to
marry_; that from the Time he had got her from her Father's House, _he
had a plain Path before him_; that _he had held her Soul in suspense an
Hundred times_; that _she would have had no Reserves, had he not given
her Cause of Doubt_; that she owned to _Belford_, that _once she could
have loved him; and could she have made him Good would have made him
Happy_.

To this Letter, continued _Bellario_, and numerous other Places in the
Book, would I refer all those, if any such there are, who yet doubt her
being capable of Love. Surely we may fairly conclude with _Lovelace_,
that well might she, who had been used to be courted and admired by
every desiring Eye, and worshipped by every respectful Heart--Well might
such a Woman be allowed to draw back, when she found herself kept in
suspence, as to the great Question of all, by a designing and intriguing
Spirit, pretending Awe and Distance, as Reasons for reining in a
Fervour, which, if real, cannot be reined in.

_Clarissa_ seems indeed, as Colonel _Morden_ says, (added the
now-admiring _Bellario_) to have been, as much as Mortal could be, LOVE
ITSELF.

Miss _Gibson_ was highly delighted with what _Bellario_ said, and added
to it, That she thought _Clarissa's_ frankness of Heart was very
apparent, from the manner in which she had treated those Gentlemen her
Heart had obliged he