“The next day, Miss Lardner sent the same servant, out of mere curiosity, to make private inquiry whether Mr. Lovelace were, or were not, with you there.—And this inquiry brought out, ☞ from different people, that the house was suspected to be one of those genteel wicked houses, which receive and accommodate fashionable people of both sexes.
“Miss Lardner, confounded at this strange intelligence, made further inquiry; enjoining secrecy to the servant she had sent, as well as to the gentleman ☞ whom she employed; who had it confirmed from a rakish friend, who knew the house; and told him, that there were two houses: the one in which all decent appearances were preserved, and guests rarely admitted
; the other, the receptacle of those who were absolutely engaged, and broken to the vile yoke.”
☞ Say—my dear creature—say—Shall I not execrate the wretch?—But words are weak—What can I say, that will suitably express my abhorrence of such a villain as he must have been, when he meditated to carry a Clarissa to such a place! “Miss Lardner kept this to herself some days, not knowing what to do; for she loves you, and admires you of all women. At last she revealed it, but in confidence, to Miss Biddulph, by letter. Miss Biddulph, in like confidence, being afraid it would distract me, were I to know it, communicated it to Miss Lloyd; and so, like a whispered scandal, it passed through several canals, and then it came to me; which was not till last Monday.” I thought I should have fainted upon the surprising communication. But rage taking place, it blew away the sudden illness. I besought Miss Lloyd to re-enjoin secrecy to everyone. I told her that ☞ I would not for the world that my mother, or any of your family, should know it. And I instantly caused a trusty friend to make what inquiries he could about Tomlinson.
☞ I had thoughts to have done it before I had this intelligence: but not imagining it to be needful, and little thinking that you could be in such a house, and as you were pleased with your changed prospects, I ☞ forbore. And the rather forbore, as the matter is so laid, that Mrs. Hodges is supposed to know nothing of the projected treaty of accommodation; but, on the contrary, that it was designed to be a secret to her, and to everybody but immediate parties; and it was Mrs. Hodges that I had proposed to sound by a second hand.
☞ Now, my dear, it is certain, without applying to that too-much-favoured housekeeper, that there is not such a man within ten miles of your uncle.—Very true!—One Tomkins there is, about four miles off; but he is a day-labourer: and one Thompson, about five miles distant the other way; but he is a parish schoolmaster, poor, and about seventy.
☞ A man, thought but of £800 a year, cannot come from one country to settle in another, but everybody in both must know it, and talk of it.
☞ Mrs. Hodges may yet be sounded at a distance, if you will. Your uncle is an old man. Old men imagine themselves under obligation to their ☞ paramours, if younger than themselves, and seldom keep anything from their knowledge. But if we suppose him to make secret of this designed treaty, it is impossible, before that treaty was thought of, but she must have seen him, at least have heard your uncle speak praisefully of a man he is said to be so intimate with, let him have been ever so little a while in those parts.
☞ Yet, methinks, the story is so plausible—Tomlinson, as you describe him, is so good a man, and so much of a gentleman; the end to be answered ☞ by his being an impostor, so much more than necessary if Lovelace has villany in his head; and as ☞ you are in such a house—your wretch’s behaviour to him was so petulant and lordly; and Tomlinson’s answer so full of spirit and circumstance; ☞ and then what he communicated to you of Mr. Hickman’s application to your uncle, and of Mrs. Norton’s to your mother, (some of which particulars, ☞I am satisfied, his vile agent, Joseph Leman, could not reveal to his vile employer); his pressing on the marriage-day, in the name of your uncle, which it could not answer any wicked purpose ☞ for him to do; and what he writes of your uncle’s proposal, to have it thought that you were married from the time that you have lived in one house together; and that to be made to agree with the time of Mr. Hickman’s visit to your uncle. ☞ The insisting on a trusty person’s being present at the ceremony, at that uncle’s nomination—These things make me willing to try for a tolerable construction to be made of all. Though I am so much puzzled by what occurs on both sides of the question, ☞ that I cannot but abhor the devilish wretch, whose inventions and contrivances are forever employing an inquisitive head, as mine is, without affording the means of absolute detection. But this is what I am ready to conjecture, that Tomlinson, specious as he is, is a machine of Lovelace; ☞ and that
