o be weakened by the
justification of a single person, however unhappily circumstanced.

My father has been so good as to take off the heavy malediction he laid
me under. I must be now solicitous for a last blessing; and that is all
I shall presume to petition for. My sister's letter, communicating this
grace, is a severe one: but as she writes to me as from every body, how
could I expect it to be otherwise?

If you set out to-morrow, this letter cannot reach you till you get to
your aunt Harman's. I shall therefore direct it thither, as Mr. Hickman
instructed me.

I hope you will have met with no inconveniencies in your little journey
and voyage; and that you will have found in good health all whom you wish
to see well.

If your relations in the little island join their solicitations with your
mother's commands, to have your nuptials celebrated before you leave
them, let me beg of you, my dear, to oblige them. How grateful will the
notification that you have done so be to

Your ever faithful and affectionate
CL. HARLOWE.

LETTER LXII

MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HARLOWE
SATURDAY, JULY 29.

I repine not, my dear Sister, at the severity you have been pleased to
express in the letter you favoured me with; because that severity was
accompanied with the grace I had petitioned for; and because the
reproaches of mine own heart are stronger than any other person's
reproaches can be: and yet I am not half so culpable as I am imagined
to be: as would be allowed, if all the circumstances of my unhappy story
were known: and which I shall be ready to communicate to Mrs. Norton, if
she be commissioned to inquire into them; or to you, my Sister, if you
can have patience to hear them.

I remembered with a bleeding heart what day the 24th of July was. I began
with the eve of it; and I passed the day itself--as it was fit I should
pass it. Nor have I any comfort to give to my dear and ever-honoured
father and mother, and to you, my Bella, but this--that, as it was the
first unhappy anniversary of my birth, in all probability, it will be the
last.

Believe me, my dear Sister, I say not this merely to move compassion, but
from the best grounds. And as, on that account, I think it of the
highest importance to my peace of mind to obtain one farther favour, I
would choose to owe to your intercession, as my sister, the leave I beg,
to address half a dozen lines (with the hope of having them answered as I
wish) t