oul's superior. Her fortitude.
Her prayer.

LETTER LIV. LV. From the same.--Now indeed is her heart broken, she
says. A solemn curse laid upon her by her father. Her sister's barbarous
letters on the occasion.

LETTER LVI. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--A letter full of generous
consolation and advice. Her friendly vow. Sends her fifty guineas in the
leaves of a Norris's miscellanies.

LETTER LVII. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--A faithful friend the medicine of
life. She is just setting out for London. Lovelace has offered marriage
to her in so unreserved a manner, that she wishes she had never written
with diffidence of him. Is sorry it was not in her power to comply with
his earnest solicitations. Returns her Norris: and why.

LETTER LVIII. LIX. Miss Howe to Clarissa.--Sorry she has returned
her Norris. Wishes she had accepted of Lovelace's unreserved offer of
marriage. Believes herself to have a sneaking kindness for Hickman: and
why. She blames Mrs. Harlowe: and why.

In answer to Letter VIII. Clarissa states the difference in the
characters of Mr. Lovelace and Mr. Hickman; and tells her, that her
motives for suspending marriage were not merely ceremonious ones.
Regrets Mrs. Howe's forbidding the correspondence between them. Her
dutiful apology for her own mother. Lesson to children.

LETTER LX. Lovelace to Belford.--Thinks he shall be inevitably manacled
at last. The lady's extreme illness. Her filial piety gives her dreadful
faith in a father's curses. She lets not Miss Howe know how very ill she
was. His vows of marriage bring her back to life. Absolutely in earnest
in those vows. [The only time he was so.] He can now talk of love and
marriage without check. Descants upon Belford's letter, No. LI.

LETTER LXI. From the same.--Is setting out for London. A struggle with
his heart. Owns it to be a villain of a heart. A fit of strong, but
transitory remorse. If he do marry, he doubts he shall have a vapourish
wife. Thinks it would be better for both not to marry. His libertine
reasons. Lessons to the sex.

LETTER LXII. From the same.--They arrive at Mrs. Sinclair's. Sally
Martin and Polly Horton set upon him. He wavers in his good purposes.
Dorcas Wykes proposed, and reluctantly accepted for a servant, till
Hannah can come. Dorcas's character. He has two great points to carry.
What they are.

THE HISTORY OF CLARISSA HARLOWE

LETTER I

MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE TUESDAY, NINE O'CLOCK.

I wr