hed!--Not such another
woman in England!--To church of all places! Is the devil in the girl?
said I, as soon as I could speak.

Well, but to leave this subject till to-morrow morning, I will now give
you the instructions I have drawn up for your's and your companions'
behaviour on Monday night.

***

Instructions to be observed by John Belford, Richard Mowbray, Thomas
Belton, and James Tourville, Esquires of the Body to General Robert
Lovelace, on their admission to the presence of his Goddess.

Ye must be sure to let it sink deep into your heavy heads, that there is
no such lady in the world as Miss Clarissa Harlowe; and that she is
neither more nor less than Mrs. Lovelace, though at present, to my shame
be it spoken, a virgin.

Be mindful also, that your old mother's name, after that of her mother
when a maid, is Sinclair: that her husband was a lieutenant-colonel, and
all that you, Belford, know from honest Doleman's letter of her,* that
let your brethren know.

* See Letter XXXVIII. Vol. III.

Mowbray and Tourville, the two greatest blunderers of the four, I allow
to be acquainted with the widow and nieces, from the knowledge they had
of the colonel. They will not forbear familiarities of speech to the
mother, as of longer acquaintance than a day. So I have suited their
parts to their capacities.

They may praise the widow and the colonel for people of great honour--but
not too grossly; nor to labour the point so as to render themselves
suspected.

The mother will lead ye into her own and the colonel's praises! and
Tourville and Mowbray may be both her vouchers--I, and you, and Belton,
must be only hearsay confirmers.

As poverty is generally suspectible, the widow must be got handsomely
aforehand; and no doubt but she is. The elegance of her house and
furniture, and her readiness to discharge all demands upon her, which
she does with ostentation enough, and which makes her neighbours, I
suppose, like her the better, demonstrate this. She will propose to do
handsome things by her two nieces. Sally is near marriage--with an
eminent woollen-draper in the Strand, if ye have a mind to it; for there
are five or six of them there.

The nieces may be inquired after, since they will be absent, as persons
respected by Mowbray and Tourville, for their late worthy uncle's sake.

Watch ye diligently every turn of my countenance, every motion of my eye;
for in my eye, and in my countenance wil