Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 3

  LETTER LIV

  MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE SATURDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 22.

  O my best, my only friend! Now indeed is my heart broken! It hasreceived a blow it never will recover. Think not of corresponding witha wretch who now seems absolutely devoted. How can it be otherwise, ifa parent's curses have the weight I always attributed to them, and haveheard so many instances in confirmation of that weight!--Yes, my dearMiss Howe, superadded to all my afflictions, I have the consequencesof a father's curse to struggle with! How shall I support thisreflection!--My past and my present situation so much authorizing myapprehensions!

  I have, at last, a letter from my unrelenting sister. Would to Heaven Ihad not provoked it by my second letter to my aunt Hervey! It lay readyfor me, it seems. The thunder slept, till I awakened it. I enclose theletter itself. Transcribe it I cannot. There is no bearing the thoughtsof it: for [shocking reflection!] the curse extends to the life beyondthis.

  I am in the depth of vapourish despondency. I can only repeat--shun,fly, correspond not with a wretch so devoted as

  CL. HARLOWE.