Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded

Your loving FATHER AND MOTHER.

Be sure don't let people's telling you, you are pretty, puff you up; for

you did not make yourself, and so can have no praise due to you for

it. It is virtue and goodness only, that make the true beauty. Remember

that, Pamela.

Letter IX

DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER,

I am sorry to write you word, that the hopes I had of going to wait on

Lady Davers, are quite over. My lady would have had me; but my master,

as I heard by the by, would not consent to it. He said her nephew might

be taken with me, and I might draw him in, or be drawn in by him; and he

thought, as his mother loved me, and committed me to his care, he ought

to continue me with him; and Mrs. Jervis would be a mother to me. Mrs.

Jervis tells me the lady shook her head, and said, Ah! brother! and that

was all. And as you have made me fearful by your cautions, my heart

at times misgives me. But I say nothing yet of your caution, or my own

uneasiness, to Mrs. Jervis; not that I mistrust her, but for fear she

should think me presumptuous, and vain and conceited, to have any fears

about the matter, from the great distance between such a gentleman, and

so poor a girl. But yet Mrs. Jervis seemed to build something upon Lady

Davers's shaking her head, and saying, Ah! brother! and no more. God, I

hope, will give me his grace: and so I will not, if I can help it, make

myself too uneasy; for I hope there is no occasion. But every little

matter that happens, I will acquaint you with, that you may continue to

me your good advice, and pray for

Your sad-hearted PAMELA.

LETTER X

DEAR MOTHER,

You and my good father may wonder you have not had a letter from me in

so many weeks; but a sad, sad scene, has been the occasion of it. For to

be sure, now it is too plain, that all your cautions were well grounded.

O my dear mother! I am miserable, truly miserable!--But yet, don't be

frightened, I am honest!--God, of his goodness, keep me so!

O this angel of a master! this fine gentleman! this gracious benefactor

to your poor Pamela! who was to take care of me at the prayer of his

good dying mother; who was so apprehensive for me, lest I should be

drawn in by Lord Davers's nephew, that he would not let me go to Lady

Davers's: This very gentleman (yes, I must call him gentleman, though he

has fallen from the merit of that title) has degraded himself to offer

freedoms to his poor servant! He has now shewed himself in his true

colours; and, to me, nothing appear so black, and so frightful.