Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
and tory odious; and love the one or the other only as they are honest
and worthy men; and have never (nor never shall, hope) given a vote,
but according to what I thought was for the public good, let either
whig or tory propose it.
I wish, sir, replied Mr. Perry, all gentlemen in your station would act
so. If there was no undue influence, said my master, I am willing to
think so well of all mankind, that I believe they generally would.
But you see, said he, by my Pamela’s hand, when all the court-cards get
together, and are acted by one mind, the game is usually turned
accordingly: Though now and then, too, it may be so circumstanced, that
honours will do them no good, and they are forced to depend altogether
upon tricks.
I thought this way of talking prettier than the game itself. But I
said, Though I have won the game, I hope I am no trickster. No, said my
master, God forbid but court-cards should sometimes win with honour!
But you see, for all that, your game is as much owing to the knave as
the king; and you, my fair-one, lost no advantage, when it was put into
your power.
Else, sir, said I, I should not have done justice to my partner. You
are certainly right, Pamela, replied he; though you thereby beat your
husband. Sir, said I, you may be my partner next, and I must do
justice, you know. Well, said he, always choose so worthy a friend, as
chance has given you for a partner, and I shall never find fault with
you, do what you will.
Mr. Perry said, You are very good to me, sir; and Miss Boroughs, I
observed, seemed pleased with the compliment to her humble servant; by
which I saw she esteemed him, as he appears to deserve. Dear sir! said
I, how much better is this, than to be locked in by Lady Davers!
The supper was brought in sooner on my account, because I had had no
dinner; and there passed very agreeable compliments on the occasion.
Lady Darnford would help me first, because I had so long fasted, as she
said. Sir Simon would have placed himself next me: And my master said,
He thought it was best, where there was an equal number of ladies and
gentlemen, that they should sit, intermingled, that the gentlemen might
be employed in helping and serving the ladies. Lady Darnford said, She
hoped Sir Simon would not sit above any ladies at his own table
especially. Well, said he, I shall sit over-against her, however, and
that’s as well.
My dearest sir could not keep his eyes off me, and seemed generously
delighted with all I did, and all I said; and every one was pleased to
see his kind and affectionate behaviour to me.
Lady Jones brought up the discourse about Lady Davers again; and my
master said, I fear, Pamela, you have been hardly used, more than
you’ll say. I know my sister’s passionate temper too well, to believe
she could be over-civil to you, especially as it happened so unluckily
that I was out. If, added he, she had no pique to you, my dear, yet
what has passed between her and me, has so exasperated her, that I know
she would have quarrelled with my horse, if she had thought I valued
it, and nobody else was in her way. Dear sir, said I, don’t say so of
good Lady Davers.
Why, my dear, said he, I know she came on purpose to quarrel; and had
she not found herself under a very violent uneasiness, after what had
passed between us, and my treatment of her lord’s letter, she would not
have offered to come near me. What sort of language had she for me,
Pamela? O sir, very good, only her well-mannered brother, and such as
that!
Only, said he, ’tis taking up the attention of the company
disagreeably, or I could tell you almost every word she said. Lady
Jones wished to hear a further account of my lady’s conduct, and most
of the company joined with her, particularly Mrs. Peters; who said,
that as they knew the story, and Lady Davers’s temper, though she was
very good in the main, they could wish to be so agreeably entertained,
if he and I pleased; because they imagined I should have no
difficulties after this.
Tell me, then, Pamela, said he, did she lift up her hand at you? Did
she strike you? But I hope not! A little slap of the hand, said I, or
so.—Insolent woman! She did not, I hope, offer to strike your face?
Why, said I, I was a little saucy once or twice; and she would have
given me a cuff on the ear, if her woman and Mrs. Jewkes had not
interposed. Why did you not come out at the door? Because, said I, her
ladyship sat in the chair against it, one while, and another while
locked it; else I offered several times to get away.
She knew I expected you here: You say, you shewed her my letter to you?
Yes, sir, said I; but I had better not; for she as then more
exasperated, and made strange comments upon it. I doubt it not, said
he; but, did she not see, by the kind epithets in it, that there was no
room to doubt of our being married? O, sir, replied I, and made the
company smile, she said, For that very reason she was sure I was not
married.
That’s like my sister! said he; exactly like her; and yet she lives
very happily herself: for her poor lord never contradicts her. Indeed
he dares not.
You were a great many wenches, were you not, my dear? for that’s a
great word with her.—Yes, sir, said I, wenches and creatures out of
number; and worse than all that. What? tell me, my dear. Sir, said I, I
must not have you angry with Lady Davers; while you are so good to me,
’tis all nothing; only the trouble I have that I cannot be suffered to
shew how much I honoured her ladyship, as your sister.
Well, said he, you need not be afraid to tell me: I must love her after
all; though I shall not be pleased with her on this occasion. I know it
is her love for me, though thus oddly expressed, that makes her so
uneasy: and, after all, she comes, I’m sure, to be reconciled to me;
though it must be through a good hearty quarrel first: for she can shew
a good deal of sunshine; but it must be always after a storm; and I’ll
love her dearly, if she has not been, and will not be, too hard upon my
dearest.
Mr. Peters said, Sir, you are very good, and very kind; I love to see
this complaisance to your sister, though she be in fault, so long as
you can shew it with so much justice to the sweetest innocence and
merit in the world. By all that’s good, Mr. Peters, said he, I’d
present my sister with a thousand pounds, if she would kindly take my
dear Pamela by the hand, and wish her joy, and call her sister!—And yet
I should be unworthy of the dear creature that smiles upon me there, if
it was not principally for her sake, and the pleasure it would give
her, that I say this: for I will never be thoroughly reconciled to my
sister till she does; for I most sincerely think, as to myself, that my
dear wife, there she sits, does me more honour in her new relation,
than she receives from me.
Sir, said I, I am overwhelmed with your goodness!—And my eyes were
filled with tears of joy and gratitude: and all the company with one
voice blessed him. And Lady Jones was pleased to say, The behaviour of
you two happy ones, to each other, is the most edifying I ever knew. I
am always improved when I see you. How happy would every good lady be
with such a gentleman, and every good gentleman with such a lady!—In
short, you seem made for one another.
O madam, said I, you are so kind, so good to me, that I know not how to
thank you enough!—Said she, You deserve more than I can express; for,
to all that know your story, you are a matchless person. You are an
ornament to our sex and your virtue, though Mr. B—— is so generous as
he is, has met with no more than its due reward. God long bless you
together!
You are, said my dearest sir, very good to me, madam, I am sure. I have
taken liberties in my former life, that deserved not so much
excellence. I have offended extremely, by trials glorious to my Pamela,
but disgraceful to me, against a virtue that I now consider as almost
sacred; and I shall not think I deserve her, till I can bring my
manners, my sentiments, and my actions, to a conformity with her own.
In short, my Pamela, continued he, I want you to be nothing but what
you are, and have been. You cannot be better; and if you could, it
would be but filling me with despair to attain the awful heights of
virtue at which you have arrived. Perhaps, added the dear gentleman,
the scene I have beheld within these twelve hours, has made me more
serious than otherwise I should have been: but I’ll assure you, before
all this good company, I speak the sentiments of my heart, and those
not of this day only.
What a happy daughter is yours, O my dear father and mother! I owe it
all to God’s grace, and to yours and my good lady’s instructions: And
to these let me always look back with grateful acknowledgments, that I
may not impute to myself, and be proud, my inexpressible happiness.
The company were so kindly pleased with our concern, and my dear
master’s goodness, that he, observing their indulgence, and being
himself curious to know the further particulars of what had passed
between my lady and me, repeated his question, What she had called me
besides wench and creature? And I said, My lady, supposing I was
wicked, lamented over me, very kindly, my depravity and fall, and said,
What a thousand pities it was, so much virtue, as she was pleased to
say, was so destroyed; and that I had yielded, after so noble a stand!
as she said.
Excuse me, gentlemen and ladies, said I! you know my story, it seems;
and I am commanded, by one who has a title to all my obedience, to
proceed.
They gave all of them bows of approbation, that they might not
interrupt me; and I continued my story—the men-servants withdrawing, at
a motion of Mr. B——, on my looking towards them: and then, at Lady
Darnford’s coming in, I proceeded.
I told her ladyship, that I was still innocent, and would be so, and it
was injurious to suppose me otherwise. Why, tell me, wench, said
she—But I think I must not tell you what she said. Yes, do, said my
master, to clear my sister; we shall think it very bad else.
I held my hand before my face—Why, she said, Tell me, wench, hast thou
not been—hesitating—a very free creature with thy master? That she
said, or to that effect—And when I said, She asked strange questions,
and in strange words, she ridiculed my delicacy, as she called it; and
said, My niceness would not last long. She said, I must know I was not
really married, that my ring was only a sham, and all was my cunning to
cloak my yielding, and get better terms. She said, She knew the world
as much at thirty-two, as I did at sixteen; and bid me remember that.
I took the liberty to say, (but I got a good way off,) that I scorned
her ladyship’s words, and was as much married as her ladyship. And then
I had certainly been cuffed, if her woman had not interposed, and told
her I was not worthy her anger; and that I was as much to be pitied for
my credulity, as despised for my vanity.
My poor Pamela, said my master, this was too, too hard upon you! O sir,
said I, how much easier it was to me than if it had been so!—That would
have broken my heart quite!—For then I should have deserved it all, and
worse; and these reproaches, added to my own guilt, would have made me
truly wretched!
Lady Darnford, at whose right-hand I sat, kissed me with a kind of
rapture, and called me a sweet exemplar for all my sex. Mr. Peters said
very handsome things; so did Mr. Perry and Sir Simon, with tears in his
eyes, said to my master, Why, neighbour, neighbour, this is excellent,
by my troth. I believe there is something in virtue, that we had not
well considered. On my soul, there has been but one angel come down for
these thousand years, and you have got her.
Well, my dearest, said my master, pray proceed with your story until,