LETTER XXXVI
MISS ARABELLA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWEFRIDAY, JULY 21.
MISS ANNA HOWE,
Your pert letter I have received. You, that spare nobody, I cannotexpect should spare me. You are very happy in a prudent and watchfulmother.--But else mine cannot be exceeded in prudence; but we had all toogood an opinion of somebody, to think watchfulness needful. There maypossibly be some reason why you are so much attached to her in an errorof this flagrant nature.
I help to make a sister unhappy!--It is false, Miss!--It is all her owndoings!--except, indeed, what she may owe to somebody's advice--you knowwho can best answer for that.
Let us know your mind as soon as you please: as we shall know it to beyour mind, we shall judge what attention to give it. That's all, from,&c.
AR. H.
LETTER XXXVII
MISS HOWE, TO MISS ARABELLA HARLOWESAT. JULY 22.
It may be the misfortune of some people to engage every body's notice:others may be the happier, though they may be the more envious, fornobody's thinking them worthy of any. But one would be glad people hadthe sense to be thankful for that want of consequence, which subject themnot to hazards they would heartily have been able to manage under.
I own to you, that had it not been for the prudent advice of thatadmirable somebody (whose principal fault is the superiority of hertalents, and whose misfortune to be brother'd and sister'd by a couple ofcreatures, who are not able to comprehend her excellencies) I might atone time have been plunged into difficulties. But pert as thesuperlatively pert may think me, I thought not myself wiser, because Iwas older; nor for that poor reason qualified to prescribe to, much lessto maltreat, a genius so superior.
I repeat it with gratitude, that the dear creature's advice was of verygreat service to me--and this before my mother's watchfulness becamenecessary. But how it would have fared with me, I cannot say, had I hada brother or sister, who had deemed it their interest, as well as agratification of their sordid envy, to misrepresent me.
Your admirable sister, in effect, saved you, Miss, as well as me--withthis difference--you, against your will--me with mine: and but for yourown brother, and his own sister, would not have been lost herself.
Would to Heaven both sisters had been obliged with their own wills!--themost admirable of her sex would never then have been out of her father'shouse!--you, Miss--I don't know what had become of you.--But, let whatwould have happened, you would have met with the humanity you have notshown, whether you had deserved it or not:--nor, at the worst, losteither a kind sister, or a pitying friend, in the most excellent ofsisters.
But why run I into length to such a poor thing? why push I so weak anadversary? whose first letter is all low malice, and whose next is madeup of falsehood and inconsistence, as well as spite and ill-manners! yetI was willing to give you a part of my mind. Call for more of it; itshall be at your service: from one, who, though she thanks God she is notyour sister, is not your enemy: but that she is not the latter, iswithheld but by two considerations; one that you bear, though unworthily,a relation to a sister so excellent; the other, that you are not ofconsequence enough to engage any thing but the pity and contempt of
A.H.