Summary
Clarissa’s pens, ink, and paper are taken away, but she
continues to write with her concealed stash. Lovelace threatens
to interfere if Clarissa is taken to her uncle’s and suggests that
she run away to his relatives’ house. Anna writes that her mother
has refused to take Clarissa in. She suggests that Clarissa sneak
away to London, where she can hide until Cousin Morden arrives and
offers to accompany her. Clarissa defends Mrs. Howe’s right to refuse
her and blames herself for corresponding with Lovelace against her
parents’ injunction. She refuses to consider Anna’s offer, but she
asks if Anna could find her some transportation to London.
The Harlowes learn that Lovelace has assembled a band
of armed men to waylay them if they take Clarissa to her uncle’s.
They are incensed but decide not to go through with the plan. Instead, they
order a license so Clarissa can be married in her own room on the
following Wednesday. Seeing no way out, Clarissa writes to Lovelace
that she will meet him Monday night near the summer house, and she
brings the letter to Lovelace’s pick-up spot. But she is uneasy,
and that night she has a dream in which Lovelace carries her to
a churchyard, stabs her, and throws her into a grave in which other
bodies are already decomposing. On waking she finds that Lovelace
has taken her letter, and she wishes she could have gotten it back
first.
Anna writes that she cannot find a way to get Clarissa
to London. She insists that the duties of friendship compel Clarissa
to accept her assistance. If Clarissa decides to go off with Lovelace
instead, Anna recommends that she marry him immediately.
Lovelace writes that his cousin Charlotte, who was supposed
to escort Clarissa in her escape, is ill. This, combined with Clarissa’s reflections
on the difficulty of renouncing Lovelace if she goes away with him,
leads her to write to Lovelace and cancel the plan. While all the
other letters to Lovelace had been retrieved immediately, this one
lies where she has left it until the day appointed for the escape. Dolly
writes to Clarissa to warn her that she will be forced into marriage
on Wednesday, but Clarissa decides to risk staying. Since Lovelace
has still not retrieved the letter, Clarissa resolves to meet him
as planned, fearing that if she does not, he will go into the house
and cause trouble. She writes to Anna from her summer house at eleven o’clock.
Her Aunt Hervey has come to see her there and tries to comfort Clarissa
with mysterious hints that all might not be as bad as she thinks.
The hour of the appointment comes as she is writing, and she notes
that her lines are getting shaky. She runs to deposit the letter before
Lovelace arrives.
Her next letter, dated Tuesday morning, is written from
a nearby town, St. Albans. It gives little information, but Clarissa
blames herself for doing “a rash, an inexcusable thing, in meeting
him” and asks Anna to send her linens. Anna is aghast at what Clarissa
has done but says she loves her still and offers any help she can
give. The letter is interrupted by the arrival of two young women
at the Howe residence, apparently bearing the gossip about Clarissa’s
elopement.
Clarissa writes to fill in the details of her flight:
She meets Lovelace and tells him of the change in her plans. He
breathlessly tells her that they must run, or that they will be
discovered any moment. He will not let go of her hand and draws
her out of the gate. They argue back and forth for some time, when
finally Clarissa decides to turn back and call off the plan. She
goes to re-enter through the gate when there is a commotion inside,
followed by shouts about guns and pistols. (It’s later learned that
the commotion is created by Joseph Leman on Lovelace’s instruction).
Terrified and confused, Clarissa runs with Lovelace to his chariot.
In their lodgings at St. Albans, Clarissa is filled with remorse
and suspects that she has been tricked.
