Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
gentleman-like manner, presented me to the ladies, and they all saluted
me, and said, They hoped to be better acquainted with me: and Lady
Darnford was pleased to say, I should be the flower of their
neighbourhood. Sir Simon said, Good neighbour, by your leave; and
saluting me, added, Now will I say, that I have kissed the loveliest
maiden in England. But, for all this, methought I owed him a grudge for
a tell-tale, though all had turned out so happily. Mr. Peters very
gravely followed his example, and said, like a bishop, God bless you,
fair excellence! said Lady Jones, Pray, dear madam, sit down by me: and
they all sat down: But I said, I would stand, if they pleased. No,
Pamela, said my master: pray sit down with these good ladies, my
neighbours:—They will indulge it to you, for my sake, till they know
you better; and for your own, when they are acquainted with you. Sir,
said I, I shall be proud to deserve their indulgence.
They all so gazed at me, that I could not look up; for I think it is
one of the distinctions of persons of condition, and well-bred people,
to put bashful bodies out of countenance. Well, Sir Simon, said my
master, what say you now to my pretty rustic?—He swore a great oath,
that he should better know what to say to me if he was as young as
himself. Lady Darnford said, You will never leave, Sir Simon.
Said my master, You are a little confused, my good girl, and out of
breath; but I have told all my kind neighbours here a good deal of your
story, and your excellence. Yes, said Lady Darnford, my dear neighbour,
as I will call you; we that are here present have all heard of your
uncommon story. Madam, said I, you have then heard what must make your
kind allowance for me very necessary. No, said Mrs. Peters, we have
heard what will always make you valued as an honour to our sex, and as
a worthy pattern for all the young ladies in the county. You are very
good, madam, said I, to make me able to look up, and to be thankful for
the honour you are pleased to do me.
Mrs. Jewkes came in with the canary, brought by Nan, to the alcove, and
some cakes on a silver salver; and I said, Mrs. Jewkes, let me be your
assistant; I will serve the ladies with the cake. And so I took the
salver, and went round to the good company with it, ending with my
master. The Lady Jones said, She never was served with such a grace,
and it was giving me too much trouble. O, madam, said I, I hope my good
master’s favour will never make me forget, that it is my duty to wait
upon his friends. Master, sweet one! said Sir Simon, I hope you won’t
always call Mr. B—— by that name, for fear it should become a fashion
for all our ladies to do the like through the county. I, sir, said I,
shall have many reasons to continue this style, which cannot affect
your good ladies.
Sir Simon, said Lady Jones, you are very arch upon us but I see very
well, that it will be the interest of all the gentlemen, to bring their
ladies into an intimacy with one that can give them such a good
example. I am sure then, madam, said I, it must be after I have been
polished and improved by the honour of such an example as yours.
They all were very good and affable; and the young Lady Darnford, who
had wished to see me in this dress, said, I beg your pardon, dear miss,
as she called me; but I had heard how sweetly this garb became you, and
was told the history of it; and I begged it, as a favour, that you
might oblige us with your appearance in it. I am much obliged to your
ladyship, said I, that your kind prescription was so agreeable to my
choice. Why, said she, was it your choice then?—I am glad of that:
though I am sure your person must give, and not take, ornament from any
dress.
You are very kind, madam, said I: but there will be the less reason to
fear I should forget the high obligations I should have to the kindest
of gentlemen, when I can delight to shew the humble degree from which
his goodness had raised me.—My dear Pamela, said my master, if you
proceed at this rate, I must insist upon your first seven days. You
know what I mean. Sir, said I, you are all goodness!
They drank a glass of sack each, and Sir Simon would make me do so too,
saying, It will be a reflection, madam, upon all the ladies, if you
don’t do as they. No, Sir Simon, said I, that can’t be, because the
ladies’ journey hither makes a glass of canary a proper cordial for
them: but I won’t refuse; because I will do myself the honour of
drinking good health to you, and to all this worthy company.
Said good Lady Darnford, to my master, I hope, sir, we shall have Mrs.
Andrews’s company at table. He said, very obligingly, Madam, it is her
time now; and I will leave it to her choice. If the good ladies, then,
will forgive me, sir, said I, I had rather be excused. They all said, I
must not be excused. I begged I might. Your reason for it, my dear
Pamela? said my master: since the ladies request it, I wish you would
oblige them. Sir, replied I, your goodness will make me, every day,
worthier of the honour the ladies do me; and when I can persuade myself
that I am more worthy of it than at present, I shall with great joy
embrace all the opportunities they will be pleased to give me.
Mrs. Peters whispered Lady Jones, as my master told me afterwards; Did
you ever see such excellence, such prudence, and discretion? Never in
my life, said the other good lady. She will adorn, she was pleased to
say, her distinction. Ay, says Mrs. Peters, she would adorn any station
in life.
My good master was highly delighted, generous gentleman as he is! with
the favourable opinion of the ladies; and I took the more pleasure in
it, because their favour seemed to lessen the disgrace of his stooping
so much beneath himself.
Lady Darnford said, We will not oppress you; though we could almost
blame your too punctilious exactness: but if we excuse Miss Andrews
from dinner, we must insist upon her company at the card-table, and at
a dish of tea; for we intend to pass the whole day with you, sir, as we
told you. What say you to that, Pamela, said my master. Sir, replied I,
whatever you and the ladies please, I will cheerfully do. They said, I
was very obliging. But Sir Simon rapt out an oath, and said, That they
might dine together, if they would; but he would dine with me, and
nobody else: for, said he, I say, sir, as Parson Williams said, (by
which I found my master had told them the story,) You must not think
you have chosen one that nobody can like but yourself.
The young ladies said, If I pleased they would take a turn about the
garden with me. I answered, I would very gladly attend them; and so we
three, and Lady Jones’s sister-in-law, and Mr. Peters’s niece, walked
together. They were very affable, kind, and obliging; and we soon
entered into a good deal of familiarity; and I found Miss Darnford a
very agreeable person. Her sister was a little more on the reserve; and
I afterwards heard, that, about a year before, she would fain have had
my master make his addresses to her: but though Sir Simon is reckoned
rich, she was not thought sufficient fortune for him. And now, to have
him look down so low as me, must be a sort of mortification to a poor
young lady!—And I pitied her.—Indeed I did!—I wish all young persons of
my sex could be as happy as I am like to be.
My master told me afterwards, that I left the other ladies, and Sir
Simon and Mr. Peters, full of my praises: so that they could hardly
talk of any thing else; one launching out upon my complexion, another
upon my eyes, my hand, and, in short, for you’ll think me sadly proud,
upon my whole person and behaviour; and they all magnified my readiness
and obligingness in my answers, and the like: And I was glad of it, as
I said, for my good master’s sake, who seemed quite pleased and
rejoiced. God bless him for his goodness to me!
Dinner not being ready, the young ladies proposed a tune upon the
spinnet. I said, I believed it was not in tune. They said, they knew it
was but a few months ago. If it is, said I, I wish I had known it;
though indeed, ladies, added I, since you know my story, I must own,
that my mind has not been long in tune, to make use of it. So they
would make me play upon it, and sing to it; which I did, a song my dear
good lady made me learn, and used to be pleased with, and which she
brought with her from Bath: and the ladies were much taken with the
song, and were so kind as to approve my performance: And Miss Darnford
was pleased to compliment me, that I had all the accomplishments of my
sex. I said, I had had a good lady, in my master’s mother, who had
spared no pains nor cost to improve me. She said, she wished Mr. B——
could be prevailed upon to give a ball on an approaching happy
occasion, that we might have a dancing-match, etc.—But I can’t say I
do; though I did not say so: for these occasions, I think, are too
solemn for the principals, at least of our sex, to take part in,
especially if they have the same thoughts of that solemnity that I
have: For, indeed, though I have before me a prospect of happiness,
that may be envied by ladies of high rank, yet I must own to you, my
dear parents, that I have something very awful upon my mind, when I
think of the matter; and shall, more and more, as it draws nearer and
nearer. This is the song:
I.
Go, happy paper, gently steal,
And underneath her pillow lie;
There, in soft dreams, my love reveal,
That love which I must still conceal,
And, wrapt in awful silence, die.
II.
Should flames be doom’d thy hapless fate,
To atoms thou wouldst quickly turn:
My pains may bear a longer date;
For should I live, and should she hate,
In endless torments I should burn.
III.
Tell fair AURELIA, she has charms,
Might in a hermit stir desire.
T’ attain the heav’n that’s in her arms,
I’d quit the world’s alluring harms,
And to a cell content, retire.
IV.
Of all that pleas’d my ravish’d eye,
Her beauty should supply the place;
Bold Raphael’s strokes, and Titian’s dye,
Should but in vain presume to vie
With her inimitable face.
V.
No more I’d wish for Phoebus’ rays,
To gild the object of my sight;
Much less the taper’s fainter blaze:
Her eyes should measure out my days;
And when she slept, it should be night.
About four o’clock.
My master just came up to me, and said, If you should see Mr. Williams
below, do you think, Pamela, you should not be surprised?—No, sir, said
I, I hope not. Why should I? Expect, said he, a stranger then, when you
come down to us in the parlour; for the ladies are preparing themselves
for the card-table, and they insist upon your company.—You have a mind,
sir, said I, I believe, to try all my courage. Why, said he, does it
want courage to see him? No, sir, said I, not at all. But I was
grievously dashed to see all those strange ladies and gentlemen; and
now to see Mr. Williams before them, as some of them refused his
application for me, when I wanted to get away, it will a little shock
me, to see them smile, in recollecting what has passed of that kind.
Well, said he, guard your heart against surprises, though you shall
see, when you come down, a man that I can allow you to love dearly;
though hardly preferably to me.
This surprises me much. I am afraid he begins to be jealous of me. What
will become of me, (for he looked very seriously,) if any turn should
happen now!—My heart aches! I know not what’s the matter. But I will go
down as brisk as I can, that nothing may be imputed to me. Yet I wish
this Mr. Williams had not been there now, when they are all there;
because of their fleers at him and me. Otherwise I should be glad to