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charges home; telling him, he should be welcome to stay there till the
letter came, if he would, and be a witness, that he intended honourably,
and not to stir from his house for one while.
The poor old man staid and dined with Mrs. Jervis, with some tolerable
ease of mind, in hopes to hear from his beloved daughter in a few days;
and then accepting the present, returned for his own house, and resolved
to be as patient as possible.
Meantime Mrs. Jervis, and all the family, were in the utmost grief for
the trick put upon the poor Pamela; and she and the steward represented
it to their master in as moving terms as they durst; but were forced to
rest satisfied with his general assurances of intending her no harm;
which, however, Mrs. Jervis little believed, from the pretence he had
made in his letter, of the correspondence between Pamela and the young
parson; which she knew to be all mere invention, though she durst not say
so.
But the week after, they were made a little more easy by the following
letter brought by an unknown hand, and left for Mrs. Jervis, which, how
procured, will be shewn in the sequel.
'DEAR MRS. JERVIS,
'I have been vilely tricked, and, instead of being driven by Robin to my
dear father's, I am carried off, to where, I have no liberty to tell.
However, I am at present not used hardly, in the main; and write to beg
of you to let my dear father and mother (whose hearts must be well nigh
broken) know that I am well, and that I am, and, by the grace of God,
ever will he, their honest, as well as dutiful daughter, and
'Your obliged friend,
'PAMELA ANDREWS.'
'I must neither send date nor place; but have most solemn assurances of
honourable usage. This is the only time my low estate has been
troublesome to me, since it has subjected me to the frights I have
undergone. Love to your good self, and all my dear fellow-servants.
Adieu! adieu! but pray for poor PAMELA.'
This, though it quieted not entirely their apprehensions, was shewn to
the whole family, and to the gentleman himself, who pretended not to know
how it came; and Mrs. Jervis sent it away to the good old folks; who at
first suspected it was forged, and not their daughter's hand; but,
finding the contrary, they were a little easier to hear she was alive and
honest: and having inquired of all their acquaintance what could be done,
and no one being able to put them in a way how to proceed, with effect,
on so extraordinary an occasion, against so rich and so resolute a
gentleman; and being afraid to make matters worse, (though they saw
plainly enough, that she was in no bishop's family, and so mistrusted all
the rest of his story,) they applied themselves to prayers for their poor
daughter, and for an happy issue to an affair that almost distracted
them.
We shall now leave the honest old pair praying for their dear Pamela, and
return to the account she herself gives of all this; having written it
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