Letter XXXVI

Summary

My dearest Lady,

Your joyful Correspondent has obtained Leave to get every thing ready to quit London by Friday next, when your kind Brother promises to carry me down to Kent, and allows me to take my Charmer with me. There's Happiness for you, Madam! To see, as I hope I shall see, upon one blessed Spot, a dear faithful Husband, a beloved Child, and a Father and Mother whom I so much love and honour!

Mr. B. told me this voluntarily, this Morning at Breakfast; and then, in the kindest manner, he took Leave of me, and set out for Bedfordshire.

But I should, according to my Promise, give your Ladyship a few Particulars of our Breakfast Conference.

I bid Polly withdraw, when her Master came up to Breakfast; and I ran to the Door to meet him, and threw myself on my Knees: O forgive me, dearest, dear Sir, all my Boldness of Yesterday!—My Heart was strangely affected—or I could not have acted as I did. But never fear, my dearest Mr. B. that my future Conduct shall be different from what it used to be, or that I shall keep up to a Spirit, that you hardly thought had Place in the Heart of your dutiful Pamela, till she was thus severely try’d.

I have weigh’d well your Conduct, my dear Life, said the generous Gentleman, raising me to his Bosom; and I find an Uniformity in it, that is surprisingly just.

There is in your Composition indeed, the strangest Mixture of Meekness and high Spirit, that ever I met with. Never was a saucier dear Girl, than you, in your Maiden Days, when you thought your Honour in Danger: Never a more condescending Goodness, when your Fears were at an End. Now again, when you had Reason, as you believ’d, to apprehend a Conduct in me, unworthy of my Obligations to you, and of your Purity, you rise in your Spirit, with a Dignity that becomes an injured Person; and yet you forget not, in the Height of your Resentments, that angelick Sweetness of Temper, and Readiness to forgive, which so well become a Lady who lives as you live, and practises what you practise.