Read Clarissa Harlowe, Volume 7: Or the History of a Young Lady for Free Online Page A

thought, that the reclaiming of a man from bad habits was a much easier task than, in the nature of things, it can be.
    She writes, as your Lordship has read, 'That, in endeavouring to save a drowning wretch, she had been, not accidentally, but premeditatedly, and of set purpose, drawn in after him.' But how is this, Ladies?--You see by her own words, that I am still far from being out of danger myself. Had she found me, in a quagmire suppose, and I had got out of it by her means, and left her to perish in it; that would have been a crime indeed. --But is not the fact quite otherwise? Has she not, if her allegory prove what she would have it prove, got out herself, and left me floundering still deeper and deeper in?--What she should have done, had she been in earnest to save me, was, to join her hand with mine, that so we might by our united strength help one another out.--I held out my hand to her, and besought her to give me her's:--But, no truly! she was determined to get out herself as fast as she could, let me sink or swim: refusing her assistance (against her own principles) because she saw I wanted it.--You see, Ladies, you see, my Lord, how pretty tinkling words run away with ears inclined to be musical.
    They were all ready to exclaim again: but I went on, proleptically, as a rhetorician would say, before their voices would break out into words.
    But my fair accuser says, that, 'I have added to the list of those I have ruined, a name that would not have disparaged my own.' It is true, I have been gay and enterprising. It is in my constitution to be so. I know not how I came by such a constitution: but I was never accustomed to check or controul; that you all know. When a man finds himself hurried by passion into a slight offence, which, however slight, will not be forgiven, he may be made desperate: as a thief, who only intends a robbery, is often by resistance, and for self-preservation, drawn in to commit murder.
    I was a strange, a horrid wretch, with every one. But he must be a silly fellow who has not something to say for himself, when every cause has its black and its white side.--Westminster-hall, Jack, affords every day as confident defences as mine.
    But what right, proceeded I, has this lady to complain of me, when she as good as says--Here, Lovelace, you have acted the part of a villain by me! --You would repair your fault: but I won't let you, that I may have the satisfaction of exposing you; and the pride of refusing you.
    But, was that the case? Was that the case? Would I pretend to say, I would now marry the lady, if she would have me?
    Lovel. You find she renounces Lady Betty's mediation----
    Lord M. [Interrupting me.] Words are wind; but deeds are mind: What signifies your cursed quibbling, Bob?--Say plainly, if she will have you, will you have her? Answer me, yes or no; and lead us not a wild-goose chace after your meaning.
    Lovel. She knows I would. But here, my Lord, if she thus goes on to expose herself and me, she will make it a dishonour to us both to marry.
    Charl. But how must she have been treated--
    Lovel. [Interrupting her.] Why now, Cousin Charlotte, chucking her under the chin, would you have me tell you all that has passed between the lady and me? Would you care, had you a bold and enterprizing lover, that proclamation should be made of every little piece of amorous roguery, that he offered to you?
    Charlotte reddened. They all began to exclaim. But I proceeded.
    The lady says, 'She has been dishonoured' (devil take me, if I spare myself!) 'by means that would shock humanity to be made acquainted with them.' She is a very innocent lady, and may not be a judge of the means she hints at. Over-niceness may be under-niceness: Have you not such a proverb, my Lord?--tantamount to, One extreme produces another!----Such a lady as this may possibly think her case more extraordinary than it is. This I will take upon me to say, that if she has met with the only man in the world who would have