LETTER IV
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
Curse upon the Colonel, and curse upon the writer of the last letter Ireceived, and upon all the world! Thou to pretend to be as muchinterested in my Clarissa's fate as myself!--'Tis well for one of us thatthis was not said to me, instead of written.--Living or dying, she ismine--and only mine. Have I not earned her dearly?--Is not d----n----nlikely to be the purchase to me, though a happy eternity will be her's?
An eternal separation!--O God! O God!--How can I bear that thought!--Butyet there is life!--Yet, therefore, hope--enlarge my hope, and thou shaltbe my good genius, and I will forgive thee every thing.
For this last time--but it must not, shall not be the last--Let me hear,the moment thou receivest this--what I am to be--for, at present, I am
The most miserable of Men.
ROSE, AT KNIGHTSBRIDGE, FIVE O'CLOCK.
My fellow tells me that thou art sending Mowbray and Tourville to me:--Iwant them not--my soul's sick of them, and of all the world--but most ofmyself. Yet, as they send me word they will come to me immediately, Iwill wait for them, and for thy next. O Belford, let it not be--Buthasten it, be what it may!
LETTER V
MR. BELFORD, TO ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ.SEVEN O'CLOCK, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPT. 7.
I have only to say at present--Thou wilt do well to take a tour toParis; or wherever else thy destiny shall lead thee!----
JOHN BELFORD.