The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 4 (of 7)Richardson, Samuel
General
The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 4 (of 7)
Richardson, Samuel
England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction; Epistolary fiction
Mr. Greville and Mr. Fenwick were here separately, an hour ago: I thanked
them for their civility on the road, and not ungraciously, as Mr.
Greville told my uncle, as to him. He was not, he said, without hopes,
yet; since I knew not how to be ungrateful. Mr. Greville builds, as he
always did, a merit on his civility; and by that means sinks, in the
narrower lover, the claim he might otherwise make to the title of the
generous neighbour.
***
Miss Orme has just been here. She could not help throwing in a word for
her brother.
You will guess, my dear Lady G----, at the subject of our conversations
here, and what they will be, morning, noon, and night, for a week to
come. My grandmamma is better in health than I have known her for a year
or two past. The health of people in years can mend but slowly; and they
are slow to acknowledge it in their own favour. My grandmamma, however,
allows that she is better within these few days past; but attributes the
amendment to her Harriet's return.
How do they all bless, revere, extol, your noble brother!--How do they
wish--And how do they regret--you know what--Yet how ready are they to
applaud your Harriet, if she can hold her magnanimity, in preferring the
happiness of Clementina to her own!--My grandmamma and aunt are of
opinion, that I should; and they praise me for the generosity of my
effort, whether the superior merits of the man will or will not allow me
to succeed in it. But my uncle, my Lucy, and my Nancy, from their
unbounded love of me, think a little, and but a little, narrower; and,
believing it will go hard with me, say, It is hard. My uncle, in
particular, says, The very pretension is flight and nonsense: but,
however, if the girl, added he, can parade away her passion for an object
so worthy, with all my heart: it will be but just, that the romancing
elevations, which so often drive headstrong girls into difficulties,
should now and then help a more discreet one out of them.
Adieu, my beloved Lady G----! Repeated compliments, love, thanks, to my
Lord and Lady L----, to my Emily, to Dr. Bartlett, to Mr. Beauchamp, and
particularly to my Lord G----. Dear, dear Charlotte, be good! Let me
beseech you be good! If you are not, you will have every one of my
friends who met you at Dunstable, and, from their report, my grandmamma
and Nancy, against you; for they find but one fault in my lord: it is,
that he seems too fond of a lady, who, by her archness of looks, and
half-saucy turns upon him, even before them, evidently shewed--Shall I
say what? But I stand up for you, my dear. Your gratitude, your
generosity, your honour, I say, (and why should I not add your duty?)
will certainly make you one of the most obliging of wives, to the most
affectionate of husbands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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