them; and which, I hope, will please ever body; but I will acquaint Mr Longman with this, and take his advice; for I will not be too troublesome either to you, my dear child, or to your spouse. If I could act for his interest, as not to be a burden, what happy creatures should we both be in our own minds! We find ourselves more and more respected by every one; and, so far as shall be consistent with our new trust, we will endeavour to deserve it, that we may interest as many as know us in our own good wishes and prayers for the happiness of you both.

But let me say how much convinced I am by the reasons you give for not taking to us any of our relations. Every one of those reasons has its force with us. How happy are we to have so prudent a daughter to advise with! And I think myself obliged to promise this, that whatever I do for any of them above the amount of forty shillings at one time, I will take your direction in it, that your wise hints of making every one continue their industry, and not to rely upon favour instead of merit, may be followed. I am sure this is the way to make them happier, as well as better, men and women; for, as I have often thought, if one were to have a hundred pounds a-year in good comings-in, it would not do without industry; and with it, one may do with a quarter of it, and less.

In short, my dear child, your reasons are so good, that I wonder they came not in my head before, and then I needed not to have troubled you about the matter; but yet it ran in my own thought, that I could not like to be an encroacher; for I hate a dirty thing; and, in the midst of my distresses, never could be guilty of one. Thank God for it!

You rejoice our hearts beyond expression at the hope you give us of receiving letters from you now and then; to be sure it will be the chief comfort of our lives, next to seeing you, as we are put in hope we sometimes shall. But yet, my dear child, don't let us put you to inconvenience neither. Pray don't; you'll have enough upon your hands without; to be sure you will.

The workmen have made a good progress, and wish for Mr Longman to come down; as we also do.

You need not be afraid we should think you proud, or lifted up with your condition. You have weathered the first dangers; and, but for your fine clothes and jewels, we should not see any difference, indeed we should not, between our dear Pamela, and the much respected Mrs B. But God has given you too much sense to be proud or lifted up. I remember in your former writings, a saying of the Squire's, speaking of you, my dear child, that it was for persons who were not used to praise, and did not deserve it, to be proud of it. In like sort

one may say, it is for persons of little sense to be proud; but you, my dear child, every one sees, are above it; and that, methinks, is a proud word, is it not? If one was not-I don't know how, half stupid, I believe-one would be raised by your high style of writing. But I should be more than half stupid, I am sure, to aim at it.

Every day brings us instances of the good name his honour and you, my dear child, have left behind you in this country. Here comes one, and here comes another, and a third, and a fourth; and Goodman Andrews, cries one, and Goody Andrews, cries another-(and some call us Mr and Mrs, but we like the other full as well) -When heard you from his honour? How does his lady do? What a charming couple are they! How lovingly they live! What an example do they give to all about them! Then one cries, God bless them both! and another cries, Amen; and so says a third and a fourth; and all say, But when do you expect them down again?Such a one longs to see them-and such a one will ride a day's journey, to have but a sight of them at church. And then they say, How this gentleman praises them, and that lady admires them! O my dear child, what a happiness is this! How do your poor mother and I stand fixed to the earth to hear both your praises, our tears trickling down our cheeks, and our hearts heaving as if they would burst with joy, till we are forced to take leave in half words, and, hand in hand, go in together to bless God, and bless you both! O, my daughter, what a happy couple have God and you made us!

Your poor mother is very anxious about her dear child. I will not touch upon a matter so very irksome to you to hear of. But, though the time may be some months off, she every hour prays for your safety and happiness, and for all the increase of felicity that his honour's generous heart can wish for. This is all we will say at present; only that we are, with continued prayers and blessings, my dearest child,

Your loving father and mother,
J. AND E. ANDREWS.

Yet one word more!-and that is-our duty to your honoured husband. We must say so now; though he forbade us so often before. You cannot, my dear child, imagine how ashamed I was to have my poor letter shewn to him. I hardly remember what I wrote; but it was from my heart, I'm sure; so I needed not to keep a copy; for an honest mind must always be the same, in cases that cannot admit of change, such as those of my thankfulness to God and to him. But don't shew him all I write; for I shall be afraid of what I say, if I think any body but our daughter sees it, who knows how to allow for her poor parents defects.

LETTER VI.

LADY DAVERS, TO MRS B

MY DEAR PAMELA,

I HAD intended to have been with you before this; but my lord has been a little indisposed with the gout, and Jackey has had an intermittent fever; but they are pretty well recovered; and it shall not be long before I see you, now I understand you are returned from your Kentish expedition.

We have been exceedingly diverted with your papers. You have given us, by their means, many a delightful hour, that otherwise would have hung heavy upon us; and we are all charmed with you. Lady Betty, as well as her noble mamma, has always been of our party, whenever we have read your accounts. She is a dear, generous lady, and has shed many a tear over them, as indeed we all have; and my lord has not been unmoved, nor Jackey neither, at some of your distresses and reflections. Indeed, Pamela, you are a charming creature, and an ornament to your sex. We wanted to have had you among us a hundred times, as we read, that we might have loved, and kissed, and thanked you.

But after all, my brother, generous and noble as he was, when your trials were over, was a strange wicked young fellow; and happy it was for you both, that he was so cleverly caught in the trap he had laid for your virtue.

I can assure you my lord longs to see you, and will accompany me; for, he says, he has but a faint idea of your person. I tell him, and tell them all, that you are the finest girl, and the most improved in person and mind, I ever beheld; and I am not afraid, although they should imagine all they can in your favour, from my account of you, that they will be disappointed when they see you, and converse with you. But one thing more you must do for us, and then we will love you still more; and that is, you must send us the rest of your papers, down to your marriage at least ; and farther, if you have written farther; for we all long to see the rest, as you relate it, though we know in general what has passed.

You leave off with an account of an angry letter I wrote to my brother, to persuade him to give you your liberty, and a sum of money; not doubting but his designs would end in your ruin, and, I own it, not wishing he would marry you; for little did I know of your merit and excellence; nor could I, but for your letters so lately sent me, have had any notion of either. I do not question but, if you have recited my passionate behaviour to you when I was at the

See p. 123 and 126.

Hall, I shall make a ridiculous figure enough; but I will forgive all that, for the sake of the pleasure you have given me, and will still farther give me, if you comply with my request.

Lady Betty says, it is the best story she has heard, and the most instructive; and she longs to have the conclusion of it in your own words. She says, now and then, What a hopeful brother you have, Lady Davers!-O these intriguing gentlemen!-What rogueries do they not commit! I should have had a fine husband of him, had I received your proposal! The dear Pamela would have run in his head, and, had I been the first lady in the kingdom, I should have stood but a poor chance in his esteem; for you see his designs upon her began early.

Says she, You had a good heart to go back again to him, when the violent wretch had driven you from him on such a slight occasion: but yet, she thinks, the reasons you give in your relation, and your love for him, (which then you began to discover was your case,) as well as the event, shewed you did right.

But we will tell you all our judgments, when we have read the rest of your accounts. So pray send them, as soon as you can, to (I won't write myself sister till then,)

Your affectionate, &c.

You have done me great honour in the letter your ladyship has been pleased to send me; and it is a high pleasure to me, now all is so happily over, that my poor papers were in the least diverting to you, and to such honourable and worthy persons as your ladyship is pleased to mention. I could wish, my dear lady, I might be favoured with such remarks on my conduct, so nakedly set forth, (without any imagination that they would ever appear in such an assembly,) as may be of use to me in my future life, and make me, by that means, more worthy than it is otherwise possible I can be, of the honour to which I am raised. Do, dearest lady, favour me so far. I am prepared to receive blame, and to benefit by it, and cannot expect praise so much from my actions as from my intentions; for, indeed, these were always just and honourable. But why, even for these, do I talk of praise, since, being prompted by impulses I could not resist, it can be no merit in me to have been governed by them?

As to the papers following those in your ladyship's hands, when I say that they must needs

† See p. 121.

appear impertinent to such judges, after what you know, I dare say your ladyship will not insist upon them yet I will not scruple briefly to mention what they contain.

s

All my dangers and trials were happily at an end: so that they only contain "the conversations that passed between your ladyship's generous brother and me; his kind assurances of honourable love to me; my acknowledgments of unworthiness to him; Mrs Jewkes's respectful change of behaviour towards me; Mr Breconciliation to Mr Williams; his introducing me to the good families in the neighbourhood, and avowing before them his honourable intentions. A visit from my honest father, who (not knowing what to conclude from the letter I wrote to him before I returned to your honoured brother, desiring my papers from him) came in great anxiety of heart to know the worst, doubting I had at last been caught by a stratagem that had ended in my ruin. His joyful surprise to find how happy I was likely to be. All the hopes given me answered, by the private celebration of our nuptials-An honour so much above all that my utmost ambition could make me aspire to, and which I never can deserve! Your ladyship's arrival, and anger, not knowing I was actually married, but supposing me a vile wicked creature; in which case I should have deserved the worst of usage. Mr B- -'s angry lessons to me, for daring to interfere, though I thought in the tenderest and most dutiful manner, between your ladyship and himself. The most acceptable goodness and favour of your ladyship afterwards to me, of which, as becomes me, I shall ever retain the most grateful sense. My return to this sweet mansion, in a manner so different from my quitting it, where I had been so happy for four years, in paying my duty to the best of mistresses, your ladyship's excellent mother, to whose goodness, in taking me from my poor honest parents, and giving me what education have, I owe, under God, my happiness. The joy of good Mrs Jervis, Mr Longman, and all the servants, on this occasion. Mr B- -'s acquainting me with Miss Godfrey's affair, and presenting to me the pretty Miss Goodwin, at the dairy-house. Our appearance at church, the favour of the gentry in the neighbourhood, who, knowing your ladyship had not disdained to look upon me, and to be favourable to me, came the more readily into a neighbourly intimacy with me; and still so much the more readily, as the continued kindness of my dear benefactor, and his condescending deportment to me before them, (as if I had been worthy of the honour done me,) did credit to his own generous act." These, my lady, down to my good parents, setting out to this place, in order to be settled, by my honoured benefactor's bounty, in the Kentish farm, are the most material contents of my remaining papers: And though they might

I

be the most agreeable to those for whom only they were written, yet, as they were principally matters of course, after what your ladyship has with you; as the joy of my fond heart can be better judged of by your ladyship, than described by me; and as your ladyship is acquainted with all the particulars that can be worthy of any other person's notice but my dear parents, I am sure your ladyship will dispense with your commands; and I make it my humble request that you will.

For, madam, you must needs think, that when my doubts were dispelled; when I was confident all my trials were over; when I had a prospect before me of being so abundantly rewarded for what I had suffered; when every hour rose upon me with new delight, and fraught with fresh instances of generous kindness from such a dear gentleman, my master, my benefactor, the son of my honoured lady; your ladyship must needs think, I say, that I must be too much affected, my heart must be too much opened; and especially as it then (relieved from its past anxieties and fears, which had kept down and damped the latent flame) first discovered to me impressions, of which before I hardly thought it susceptible.-So that it is scarce possible that my joy and my prudence, if I were to be tried by such judges of delicacy and decorum as Lord and Lady Davers, the honoured countess, and Lady Betty, could be so intimately, so laudably coupled, as were to be wished: Although, indeed, the continued sense of my unworthiness, and the disgrace the dear gentleman would bring upon himself by his generous goodness to me, always went hand-in-hand with my joy and my prudence; and what these considerations took from the former, being added to the latter, kept me steadier, and more equal to myself, than otherwise it was possible such a young creature as I could have been.

Wherefore, my dear good lady, I hope I stand excused, and shall not bring upon myself the censure of being disobedient to your commands.

Besides, madam, since you inform me, that my good Lord Davers will attend your ladyship hither, I should never dare to look his lordship in the face, if all the emotions of my heart on such affecting occasions, stood confessed to his lordship; and, indeed, if I am ashamed they should to your ladyship and to the countess, and Lady Betty, whose goodness might induce you all three to think favourably, in such circumstances, of one who is of your own sex, how would it concern me, that the same should appear before such gentlemen as my lord and his nephew?-Indeed I could not look up to either of them in the sense of this.-And give me leave to hope, that some of the scenes in the letters your ladyship had, were not read to gentlemen. Your ladyship must needs know which I mean, and will think of my two grand trials of all. For though I was the innocent subject of wicked at

tempts, and so cannot, I hope, suffer in any one's opinion for what I could not help; yet, for your dear brother's sake, as well as for the decency of the matter, one would not, when one shall have the honour to appear before my lord and his nephew, be looked upon, methinks, with that levity of eye and thought, which, perhaps, hardhearted gentlemen may pass upon one, by reason of those very scenes, which would move pity and concern in a good lady's breast, for a poor creature so attempted.

So, my dear lady, be pleased to let me know if the gentlemen have heard all.-I hope they have not. And be pleased also to point out to me such parts of my conduct as deserve blame: Indeed I will try to make a good use of your censure, and am sure I shall be thankful for it ;-for it will make me hope to be more and more worthy of the honour I have, of being exalted into such a distinguished family, and the right the best of gentlemen has given me to style myself

Your ladyship's most humble,
And most obliged servant,
P. B-

LETTER VIII.

FROM LADY DAVERS-IN REPLY.

MY DEAR PAmela,

You have given us all a great disappointment in declining to oblige me with the sequel of your papers. I was a little out of humour with you at first, I must own I was-For I cannot bear denial, when my heart is set upon any thing. But Lady Betty became your advocate, and said, She thought you very excusable; since, no doubt, there might be many tender things, circumstanced as you were, which might be well enough for your parents to see, but for nobody else; and relations on our side least of all, whose future intimacy, and frequent visits, might give occasions for raillery and remarks, that might not be always agreeable. I regarded her apology for you the more, because I knew it was a great baulk to her, that you did not comply with my request. But now, child, when you know me more, you will find, that if I am obliged to give up one point, I always insist on another, as near it as I can, in order to see if it be only one thing I am to be refused, or every thing; in which last case I know how to take my measures, and resent.

Now, therefore, this is what I insist upon: That you correspond with me in the same manner you did with your parents, and acquaint me with every passage that is of concern to you; beginning with your accounts how you spent your time, both of you, when you were in Kent; for, you must know, we are all taken with your duty to your parents, and the discretion of the

good couple, and think you have given a very edifying example of filial piety to all who shall hear your story; for if so much duty is owing to parents, where nothing can be done for one, how much more is it to be expected, where there is a power to add to the natural obligation, all the comforts and conveniencies of life? We people in upper life, you must know, love to hear our gratitude and unexpected benefits operate upon honest minds, who have little more than plain artless nature for their guide; and we flatter ourselves with the hopes of many a delightful hour, by your means, in this our solitary situation, as it will be, if we are obliged to pass the next winter in it, as my lord and the earl threaten me, and the countess, and Lady Betty, that we shall. Then let us hear of every thing that gives you joy or trouble: and if my brother carries you to town, for the winter, while he attends parliament, the advices you will be able to give us of what passes in London, and of the public entertainments and diversions he will take you to, as you will relate them in your own artless and natural observations, will be as diverting to us, as if we were at them ourselves. For a young creature of your good understanding, to whom all these things will be quite new, will give us, perhaps, a better taste of them, their beauties and defects, than we might have before. For we people of quality go to those places, dressed out and adorned in such manner, outvying one another, as if we considered ourselves as so many parts of the public entertainment, and are too much pleased with ourselves to be able so to attend to what we see, as to form a right judgment of it: And, indeed, we, some of us, behave with so much indifference to the entertainment, as if we thought ourselves above being diverted by what we come to see, and as if our view was rather to trifle away our time, than to improve ourselves by attending to the story or the action.

See, Pamela, I shall not make an unworthy correspondent altogether, for I can get into thy grave way, and moralize a little now and then. And if you'll promise to oblige me by your constant correspondence in this way, and divest yourself of all restraint, as if you were writing to your parents, (and I can tell you, you'll write to one who will be as candid and as favourable to you as they can be,) then I am sure we shall have truth and nature from you; and these are things which we are generally so much lifted above by our conditions, that we hardly know what they are.

But I have written enough for one letter; and yet, having more to say, I will, after this, send another, without waiting for your answer, which you may give to both together; and am, meantime,

Yours, &c.

B. DAVERS.

LETTER IX.

DEAR PAMELA,

I AM very glad thy honest man has let thee into the affair of Sally Godfrey. But pr'ythee, Pamela, give us an account of the manner in which he did it, and of thy thoughts upon it; for that is a critical case; and according as he has represented it, so shall I know what to say of it before you and him: For I would not make mischief between you, for the world.

This, let me tell you, will be a trying part of your conduct: for he loves the child; and will judge of you by your conduct towards it. He dearly loved her mother; and, notwithstanding her fault, she well deserved it: for she was a sensible, ay, and a modest lady, and of an ancient and genteel family. But he was heir to a noble estate, was a bold and enterprising spirit, fond of intrigue.-Don't let this concern you You'll have the greater happiness and merit too if you can hold him-And, 'tis my opinion, if any body can, you will. Then he did not like the young lady's mother, who sought artfully to entrap him. So that the poor girl, divided between her inclination for him, and her duty to her designing mother, gave in to the plot upon him; and he thought himself-vile wretch as he was, for all that-at liberty to set up plot against plot, and the poor lady's honour was the sacrifice.

I hope you spoke well of her to him. I hope you received the child kindly.—I hope you had presence of mind to do this. For it was a nice part to act; and all his observations were up, I dare say, on the occasion.-Do let me hear how it was: there's my good Pamela, do. And write, I charge you, freely, and without restraint; for although I am not your mother, yet am I his elder sister, you know-and as such-come, I will say so, in hopes you'll oblige me your sister, and so entitled to expect a compliance with my request: for is there not a duty in degree, to elder sisters from younger?

As to our remarks upon your behaviour, they have been much to your credit, I can tell you that: But, nevertheless, I will, to encourage you to enter into this requested correspondence with me, consult Lady Betty, and will go over your papers again, and try to find fault with your conduct; and if we can see any thing censurable, will freely let you know our minds.

But, beforehand, I can tell you, we shall be agreed in one opinion; and that is, that we know not who would have acted as you have done, upon the whole.

So, Pamela, you see I put myself upon the same foot of correspondence with you.-Not that I will promise to answer every letter: No, you must not expect that.-Your part will be a kind of narrative purposely designed to enter

tain us here; and I hope to receive six, seven, eight or ten letters, as it may happen, before I return one: but such a part I will bear in it, as shall let you know our opinion of your proceedings, and relations of things.-And as you wish to be found fault with, as you say, you shall freely have it, (though not in a splenetic or ill-natured way,) as often as you give occasion: Now, you must know, Pamela, I have two views in this. One is, to see how a man of my brother's spirit, who has not denied himself any genteel liberties, (for it must be owned he never was a common town rake, and had always dignity in his roguery,) will behave himself to you, and in wedlock, which used to be freely sneered at by him: The next, that I may love you more and more, which it will be enough to make me do, I dare say, as by your letters I shall be more and more acquainted with you, as well as by conversation: so that you can't be off, if you would. I know, however, you will have one objection to this; and that is, that your family affairs will require your attention, and not give you the time you used to have for this employment. But consider, child, the station you are raised to does not require you to be quite a domestic animal. You are lifted up to the rank of a lady, and you must act up to it, and not think of setting such an example, as will derive upon you the ill-will and censure of other ladies.-For will any of our sex visit one who is continually employing herself in such works as either must be a reproach to herself, or to them?-You'll have nothing to do but to give orders. You will consider yourself as the task-mistress, and the common herd of female servants, as so many negroes directing themselves by your nod; or yourself as the master-wheel, in some beautiful piece of mechanism, whose dignified grave motion is to set a-going all the under wheels, with a velocity suitable to their respective parts.-Let your servants, under your direction, do all that relates to household management: They cannot write to entertain and instruct, as you can: so what will you have to do?-I'll answer my own question. In the first place, endeavour to please your sovereign lord and master: and let me tell you, any other woman in England, be her quality ever so high, would have found enough to do to succeed in that. Secondly, to receive and pay visits, in order, for his credit as well as your own, to make your fashionable neighbours fond of you. Then, thirdly, you will have time upon your hands (as your monarch himself rises early, and is tolerably regular for such a brazen face as he has been) to write to me, in the manner I have mentioned, and expect; and I see plainly, by your style, that nothing can be easier for you, than to do this.

And thus, and with reading, may your time be filled up with reputation to yourself, and delight to others, till a fourth employment puts itself upon you; and that is, (shall I tell you in