Pamela

by Samuel Richardson

  ‘Well,’ said Mr Perry, very politely, ‘excellent as your lady is, I know not the man who could deserve her, but that one, who says such just and such fine things of her.’

  I was abashed; and took Miss Darnford’s hand, and whisperingly said to her, ‘Save me, dear madam, by your sweet example, from my rising pride. Could I deserve half these kind things, what a happy creature should I be!’

  The greatest part of the company having sat down at loo, my master, being pressed, (how can I forbear calling him my master?) consented to play a rubbers at whist;314 though he said, he had rather be excused, having been up all night. I asked how his friend did. ‘We will talk of poor Mr Carlton,’ said he, ‘another time.’ This, and the solemnity he spoke it with, made me fear the poor gentleman was no more: as indeed it proved.

  We cast in,315 and Miss Boroughs and my master were together, and Mr Perry and 1.1 had all four honours316 the first time, and we were up at one deal.317 ‘An honourable hand, Pamela,’ said my master, ‘ should go with an honourable heart; but you would not have been up, if a knave had not been one.’ ‘Whist, sir,’ said Mr Perry, ‘you know was a court game originally; and the knave, I suppose, signified always the prime-minister.’

  This introduced a pretty conversation, though a brief one, in relation to the game at whist. Mr B. compared it to the English constitution. He considered, he said, the ace as the laws of the land; the supreme welfare of the people. ‘We see,’ said he, ‘that the plain, honest-looking ace, is above and wins the king, the queen, and the wily knave. But, by my Pamela’s hand, we may observe what an advantage accrues when all the court-cards get together, and are acted by one mind.’

  Mr Perry having in the conversation, observed, that it is an allowed maxim in our laws, that the king can do no wrong, ‘Indeed,’ said Mr B., ‘we make that compliment to our kings indiscriminately; and it is well to do so, because the royal character is sacred; and because it should remind a prince of what is expected from him: but if the force of example be considered, the compliment should be paid only to a sovereign who is a good man, as well as a good prince; since a good master generally, through all degrees of men, makes good servants.’

  Supper was brought in sooner on my account, because I had had no dinner; and there passed very agreeable compliments on the occasion.

  Mrs Jones brought up the discourse about Lady Davers again; and my master said, ‘I fear, Pamela, you have been more hardly used than you’ll own. I know my sister’s temper too well, to believe she could be over-civil to you, especially as it happened so unluckily that I was from home. If,’ added he, ‘she had no pique to you, my dear, yet what has passed between her and me, has so exasperated her, that I know she would have quarrelled with my horse, if she thought I valued it, and nothing else was in her way.

  ‘I know, my dear,’ continued he, ‘she came on purpose to quarrel. The treatment I gave to her lord’s letter must have greatly incensed her. What sort of language had she for me, Pamela?’ ‘Only, sir, her well-mannered brother, and such like.’

  Mrs Jones, and Mrs Peters, said, That as Lady Davers’s violent temper, and her many good qualities, were equally known to the neighbours present; as Mr B. would expect to hear what her treatment of me had been, when he got home, when perhaps there would not be any methators between my lady and him present; and as they presumed this would be the last trial I should meet with, they wished they might be favoured with the particulars; making a compliment to my manner. Lady Darnford pleaded the curiosity and attention of Mr Perry and the Miss Boroughs’s, who having heard a part of the story, wished, as they had whispered her, to hear the rest; and Mr B. being as impatient to know if I had suffered any personal indignity, I, by his command, related all that had passed, as I have written to you, my dear parents; only palliating her violence, by owning sometimes the sauciness of my answers; and the provocation I gave her by once saying, that I was as much married as her ladyship; and by mentioning her great concern for my credulity and supposed forfeited innocence; insisting that my marriage was a sham-marriage; and my ring a mere grimace, in order to cloak my yielding.

  He expressed high displeasure, however, at her slapping my hand; and at her intending farther violence, had it not been for the interposition of her woman and Mrs Jewkes; the latter of whom I praised for her behaviour on the occasion. This generosity, as it was called, got me many applauses, Mr B.’s in particular. And I was the less scrupulous in my relation, from the hint of Mrs Peters and Mrs Jones, that it was better to tell the worst, that his resentment might be weakened when he came face to face with Lady Davers; when all her violence might have come out, and no pacifiers, as now, present; for her ladyship wants not the respect of this neighbourhood, though every one blamed her for the way she always unhappily gave to her passionate temper. And what made me still the less earnest to disguise the truth, was, that he once said, when I was shy of telling him the worst, ‘Be not afraid, my dear, to acquaint me with all you suffered from my sister’s violence. I must love her, after all. I know she comes with a view to reconciliation; but it must be through a hearty quarrel: she can shew a great deal of sunshine; but it must be preceded by a storm.’

  Mr Peters, on this occasion, with a kind view to mollify Mr B., said, ‘I am pleased, sir, to see, that you can thus, like a brother, allow for your sister’s failings; yet do justice to the merit of the most amiable of wives.’

  To this Mr B. answered (which yet farther encouraged me in telling all that had passed), ‘By all that’s good, Mr Peters, I would present my sister with jewels to the value of a thousand pounds, if she would kindly take my Pamela by the hand, wish her joy, and call her sister! And yet I should be unworthy of the dear creature that smiles upon me there, if it was not principally for her sake, and for the pleasure it would give her, that I say this.’

  I bowed to him as I sat; but could not speak: my eyes were filled with tears of gratitude: and all the company, with one voice, blessed him, and praised me. And upon my disclaiming a right to this extraordinary compliment, Mrs Jones was pleased to say, ‘My dear Mrs B., you deserve more than I can express; for to all who know your story, you must appear to be a matchless person.’

  Lady Darnford added, ‘You are an ornament to our sex, my dear; and your virtue, though Mr B. is so kind and generous a husband, as we see him, has met with no more than its due reward. And God long bless you together!’

  ‘You are,’ said my dearest Mr B., ‘very good to me, ladies. I have offended extremely, by trials glorious to my Pamela, but disgraceful to myself; and I shall not think I deserve her, till I can bring my manners to a conformity with hers.’

  O my dear father and mother! What a happy creature am I! I owe it all to God’s grace, and to your and my good lady’s instructions. To these let me always look back with grateful acknowledgments, that I may not impute to myself my present happiness, and be proud.

  On my dear Mr B.’s pitying me, when I related some of her ladyship’s charges upon me, of having been deluded, of art, of design, and of being a lost creature: ‘O sir,’ said I, ‘how much easier sat upon me these charges, heavy as they were, than they would have done, had they been just! Then would they have quite broken my heart. These reproaches, added to my own guilt, would have made me truly wretched!’

  Lady Darnford, at whose right-hand I sat, snatched my hand in a kind of rapture; and called me an exemplar for all my sex. Mr Peters said very handsome things: so did Mr Perry; and Sir Simon, his eyes glistening, said to my master, ‘Why, neighbour, neighbour, by my troth, this is excellent! There is certainly something in virtue, that we had not well considered. On my soul, there has been but one angel come down for these thousand years, and you have got her.’

  My master was so good as to applaud me for my whole behaviour; and particularly for my refusing to wait upon her at table; and then enquiring after the particulars of my escape; I thus proceeded: ‘I saw nothing was to be done; and I feared, sir, you would wonder at my stay, and be angry; and I watched
my opportunity, till my lady, who was walking about the room, was at the further end; and the parlour being, as you know, sir, a ground-floor, I jumped out of the window, and ran for it.

  ‘Her ladyship called after me; so did her woman; and I heard her say, I flew like a bird; and she called to two of her servants, in sight, to stop me; but I said, “Touch me at your peril, fellows” : and Mr Colbrand, having been planted at hand by Mrs Jewkes, put on a fierce look, cocked his hat with one hand, and put the other on his sword, and said, he would chine the man who offered to touch me. And he ran along-side of me, and could hardly keep pace with me: And here, my dear sir,’ concluded I, ‘I am, at yours and the good company’s service.’

  They were highly pleased with my relation; and my master said, he was glad Mrs Jewkes and Colbrand behaved so well.

  ‘My sister,’ said he, ‘was always passionate. My mother had enough to do with us both. For we neither of us wanted spirit. When I was a boy, I never came home from school or college for a few days, but though we longed to see each other before, yet, ere the first day was over, we quarrelled: for she, being seven years older than I, was always for domineering over me, and I could not bear it. I used, on her frequently quarrelling with the maids, and being always at a word and a blow with them, to call her Captain Bab. (Her name is Barbara.) In my Lord Davers’s courtship of her, my mother has made up quarrels between them three times in a day; and I used to tell her, she would certainly beat her husband, marry whom she would, if he did not break her spirit. Yet has she,’ continued he, ‘very good qualities. She was a dutiful daughter; is a good wife, for a managing one; she is bountiful to her servants, firm in her friendships, charitable to the poor, and, I believe, never any sister better loved a brother, than she me: and yet, she always delighted to vex and teaze me; and as I would bear a resentment longer than she, she would be one moment the most provoking creature in the world, and the next would do any thing to be forgiven. Indeed I have made her, when she was the aggressor, follow me all over the house and garden to be upon good terms with me. But my marriage piques her the more, because she had found out a match for me, with a woman of quality, and had set her heart upon bringing it to effect. She had even proceeded far in it, without my knowledge; and cannot therefore bear the thoughts of my being now married, and to her mother’s waiting-maid too, as she reminds my Pamela.

  ‘This is the whole case,’ said he; ‘and allowing for the pride and violence of her spirit, and that she knows not the excellencies of my dear girl, she is a little to be allowed for: though never fear, my Pamela, but that I, who never had a struggle with her, wherein I did not get the better, will do you justice, and myself too.’

  This account of Lady Davers pleased every body; and was far from being to her disadvantage in the main. I would do any thing in the world to have the honour to be in her good graces: yet I fear that will never be brought about.

  When I had concluded my story, nothing would serve Miss Darnford, and Miss Boroughs, but we must have a dance; and Mr Peters urged it forward, proposing himself to take the violin, of which he is a master.

  My dear Mr B., though in his riding-dress, danced with Miss Boroughs. He is noted for a fine dancer, and had every one’s praises.

  Sir Simon, for a man of his years, danced well. He took me out. In his free way he said, that I was fitter to dance with a younger man; and would have it, that as my master and I were the best dancers, we should dance once together before folks; as the odd gentleman expressed himself. Mr B. obliged him, and took me out. He afterwards danced with Miss Darnford; who far, very far surpassed me.318

  We left the company, to their great regret, at about eleven. It was twelve before we got home.

  Mrs Jewkes told us, that Lady Davers sat up till eleven; and often expressed her impatience for our return; threatening us both. I was very glad to hear she was retired to rest. She had expressed, it seems, a good deal of vexation, that I had escaped her; and was a little apprehensive of the report I should make of her treatment of me. She asked Mrs Jewkes, if she thought I was really married? And Mrs Jewkes answering her in the affirmative, she fell into a passion; and said, ‘Begone, bold woman! I cannot bear thee: see not my face till I send for thee. Thou hast been very impudent to me once or twice to-day already, and art now worse than ever.’

  She sent for her at supper-time: ‘I have another question to ask thee, woman,’ said she, ‘and answer me, Yes, if thou darest.’ (Was ever any thing so odd!) ‘Why then,’ said Mrs Jewkes, ‘I will say, No, before your ladyship speaks.’ Lady Davers called her Insolence and Assurance; and said, ‘Begone, bold woman, as thou art! But yet come hither: dost thou know if that young harlot is to lie with my brother to-night ?’

  Mrs Jewkes said, she knew not what to answer, because she had threatened her, if she said, Yes. ‘I will know the bottom of this iniquity,’ proceeded my lady. ‘I suppose they will not have so much impudence as to sleep in one room while I am in the house; but I dare say they have been bed-fellows.

  ‘I will He to-night,’ said she, ‘in the room I was born in; so get that bed ready.’ That room being our bed-chamber, Mrs Jewkes, after some hesitation, replied, ‘Madam, my master lies there, and I have not the key.’ ‘I believe, woman,’ said she, ‘thou tellest me a story.’ ‘Indeed, madam,’ returned she, ‘I do not.’ And yet she did; but was afraid, she said, that her ladyship would beat her, if she went up, and found, by some of my clothes there, how it was.

  ‘I will then,’ resumed my lady, ‘lie in the best room, as it is called; and Jackey shall lie in the little green-room. Hast thou got the keys of those, Fat-face?’ ‘I have, madam; and will order them to be made ready.’

  ‘And where dost thou lay thy pursy sides?’ asked she. ‘Up two pairs of stairs, madam, next the garden.’ ‘And where lies the young harlotry?’ ‘Sometimes with me, madam.’ ‘And sometimes with thy virtuous master, I suppose? Hay, woman! what sayest thou?’ ‘I must not speak,’ replied Mrs Jewkes. ‘Well, thou mayst go; thou hast the air of a secret-keeper319 of that sort: I dare say thou’lt set the good work forward most cordially.’

  ‘Poor Mrs Jewkes! ‘said my master, and laughed heartily.

  ‘Dear sir,’ said I, ‘pray, let me in the morning lock myself up in the closet, as soon as you rise; and not be called down on any account. And I will employ myself about my journal, while these things are in my head.’ ‘Don’t be afraid, my dear,’ said he: ‘am not I with you?’

  Mrs Jewkes told her master that she pitied me for what I had undergone in the day; and I said, ‘Well, Mrs Jewkes, that’s all over, and past; and here I am safe in the best protection. But, I am much obliged to you; and I thank you, for your part on the occasion.’

  ‘I did not more than my duty,’ replied she. ‘Lady Davers was very violent. I believe, sir, I saved my lady once. But I was most vexed at the behaviour of her ladyship’s kinsman.’

  ‘Her kinsman’s behaviour! Mrs Jewkes,’ said my master eagerly, ‘let me know what his behaviour was.’

  ‘Foolishly impertinent in his words, that was all,’ said I; ‘and as I spared him not, there is no room for your displeasure, sir.’

  ‘How behaved her woman to my beloved, Mrs Jewkes?’

  ‘She was now-and-then a little impertinent, as ladies’ women will be,’ answered Mrs Jewkes. ‘But you know,’ said I, ‘that she interposed in my favour more than once:’ ‘Very true, madam,’ returned Mrs Jewkes: ‘and Mrs Worden praised you at table with me, for the sweetest creature she ever beheld; but indeed would have it that you had a spirit; and she was sorry you answered her lady as you did; for she had never borne so much contradiction before. But I told her,’ added Mrs Jewkes, ‘That if I had been in your place, madam, I should have taken much more upon me, and that you were all sweetness. And she said, I was got over, she saw.’

  TUESDAY Morning, the Sixth Day of my Happiness

  My master had given orders to Mrs Jewkes not to let him be disturbed till the usual breakfast-time, as he had sat up all
night before; but it seems my lady, knowing his usual hour to be six, arose about that time, and being resolved to find out whether one chamber served us both, and if so, to have witness of our being together, raised also her kinsman and her woman, and at about half an hour after six rapped at our chamber-door.

  My master, waking, asked, Who was there? ‘Open the door,’ said my lady; ‘open it this minute!’ I said, clinging about his neck, in great terror, ‘Dear, dear sir, pray, pray, sir, don’t open the door!’ ‘Fear nothing, Pamela,’ said he. ‘The woman is certainly mad.’

  He then called out, ‘Who are you? What do you want?’ ‘You know my voice well enough,’ answered my lady: ‘I will come in.’ ‘Pray, sir,’ said I, ‘don’t let her ladyship in.’ ‘Don’t be frighted, my dear,’ said he: ‘she thinks we are not married, and that we are afraid to be found together. I’ll let her in; but she shall not come near my dearest.’

  So slipping on some of his clothes, and putting on his gown and slippers, he opened the door. In rushed she. ‘I’ll be an eye-witness of your wickedness,’ said she, ‘I will! In vain shall you think to hide your vileness from me! ’

  ‘How dare you, madam, set a foot into my house, after the usage I have received from you?’

  I had covered myself over head and ears, and trembled in every joint: perhaps discernibly trembled, and my lady cried out, ‘Bear witness, Jackey, bear witness, Worden; the creature is now in his bed.’ My master not seeing the young gentleman before, who was at the feet of the bed, said, ‘How now, sir! What’s your business in this apartment? Begone this moment.’ And he went away directly.