LETTER LXXXII
MR. BELFORD, TO ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ.FRIDAY, AUG. 11.
[Mr. Belford acquaints his friend with the generosity of Lord M. and the Ladies of his family; and with the Lady's grateful sentiments upon the occasion.
He says, that in hopes to avoid the pain of seeing him, (Mr. Lovelace,) she intends to answer his letter of the 7th, though much against her inclination.]
'She took great notice,' says Mr. Belford, 'of that passage in your's,which makes necessary to the Divine pardon, the forgiveness of a personcauselessly injured.
'Her grandfather, I find, has enabled her at eighteen years of age tomake her will, and to devise great part of his estate to whom she pleasesof the family, and the rest out of it (if she die single) at her owndiscretion; and this to create respect to her! as he apprehended that shewould be envied: and she now resolves to set about making her will out ofhand.'
[Mr. Belford insists upon the promise he had made him, not to molest the Lady: and gives him the contents of her answer to Lord M. and the Ladies of his Lordship's family, declining their generous offers. See Letter LXXX. of this volume.
Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 7 Page 81