ook
laudanum to make her forget for ever her own folly.

But can there be a stronger instance in point than what the unaccountable
resentments of such a lady as Miss Clarissa Harlowe afford us? Who at
this instant, ill as she is, not only encourages, but, in a manner, makes
court to one of the most odious dogs that ever was seen? I think Miss
Howe should not be told this--and yet she ought too, in order to dissuade
her from such a preposterous rashness.

O fie! O strange! Miss Howe knows nothing of this! To be sure she
won't look upon her, if this be true!

'Tis true, very true, Mr. Hickman! True as I am here to tell you so!--
And he is an ugly fellow too; uglier to look at than me.

Than you, Sir! Why, to be sure, you are one of the handsomest men in
England.

Well, but the wretch she so spitefully prefers to me is a mis-shapen,
meagre varlet; more like a skeleton than a man! Then he dresses--you
never saw a devil so bedizened! Hardly a coat to his back, nor a shoe
to his foot. A bald-pated villain, yet grudges to buy a peruke to his
baldness: for he is as covetous as hell, never satisfied, yet plaguy
rich.

Why, Sir, there is some joke in this, surely. A man of common parts
knows not how to take such gentleman as you. But, Sir, if there be any
truth in the story, what is he? Some Jew or miserly citizen, I suppose,
that may have presumed on the lady's distressful circumstances; and your
lively wit points him out as it pleases.

Why, the rascal has estates in every county in England, and out of
England too.

Some East India governor, I suppose, if there be any thing in it. The
lady once had thoughts of going abroad. But I fancy all this time you
are in jest, Sir. If not, we must surely have heard of him----

Heard of him! Aye, Sir, we have all heard of him--But none of us care to
be intimate with him--except this lady--and that, as I told you, in spite
of me--his name, in short, is DEATH!--DEATH! Sir, stamping, and speaking
loud, and full in his ears; which made him jump half a yard high.

(Thou never beheldest any man so disconcerted. He looked as if the
frightful skeleton was before him, and he had not his accounts ready.
When a little recovered, he fribbled with his waistcoat buttons, as if he
had been telling his beads.)

This, Sir, proceeded I, is her wooer!--Nay, she is so forward a girl,
that she wooes him: but I hope it never will be a match.

He had before behaved, and now looke