Lovelace is still trying to do his best to get Clarissa away from Mrs. Moore's.
He tries to calm her down with false promises that his
female cousins will pay her a visit, but Clarissa sees right through that
charade.
Lovelace calls in the big guns again. Since Clarissa never
figured out that Captain Tomlinson was a false character, he gets his buddy to
pay a visit to Mrs. Moore's.
Even Captain Tomlinson is pretty torn up about tricking
Clarissa. The dude can't even play his part without crying.
While Clarissa is with Mrs. Moore at church, a letter from
her beloved Anna comes in.
Uh-oh. Lovelace intercepts it by convincing one of his new
lady friends at Mrs. Moore's to pretend she's Clarissa.
Mrs. Beavis gets the letter and passes it right onto
Lovelace, as easy as pie.
The letter has some important info about the next steps in
Clarissa's escape plan.
Anna fills in her BFF on the deets: Mrs. Townsend can
receive her the following Wednesday or Thursday, but no sooner.
That should give Lovelace plenty of time to work his evil
plans. Muahahaha.
On the plus side, Lovelace finally receives the marriage
license. He pokes fun at all the legal language in a letter to Belford, because
there isn't anything funnier than a good wedding.
Clarissa confides in Lovelace that she hopes to use her
grandfather's inheritance to live on a secluded estate, with only Mrs. Norton
as her companion. That is, if he ever lets her leave.
Well, at least Lovelace's cousins are coming to visit!
Except that they're actually prostitutes dressed up as Lovelace's cousins. Sigh.
Clarissa figures out that they're impostors, but not before
they trick her into going into town. Of course, they take her right to Mrs.
Sinclair's place.
Lovelace writes a one-line letter to Belford, letting him
know the affair is complete. Yeah, that's kind of abrupt.
We don't get any details, but it soon becomes clear that
Lovelace raped Clarissa after Mrs. Sinclair drugged her asleep.
Belford is seriously hopping mad. He calls Lovelace a bunch
of names and tells him to make it right ASAP.
Lovelace isn't totally repentant, though he does seem sad.
He basically says that Clarissa paid the price for setting such a high price on
her virginity. Not cool at all, Lovelace.
In the meantime, Clarissa is going crazy. Literally. She's
writing up a storm, but none of it seems to make sense.
We get some examples of her mad ramblings, which go all over
the page. There's some cool eighteenth-century typography if you're into that.
(Brain Snack: scholar-type folk call these the "Mad
Papers.")
Clarissa asks Lovelace to take her to the madhouse, but he
refuses.
Clarissa pulls it together enough to accuse Lovelace of her
rape, and he seems totally repentant.
He says he'll marry her right away, but Clarissa's the one
stalling now.
Lovelace gets the news from one of Lord M.'s stewards that
his Lordship is really sick.
Lovelace hopes he'll at least get a good inheritance from
Lord M. That might help him make some headway with Clarissa.
All the ladies of the night at the brothel are feeling sorry
for Clarissa. That, or they're sick of hearing her complain.
Clarissa makes friends with Dorcas and promises her a
big-time payoff if she'll help her escape.
Unfortunately, Dorcas has deep pockets and knows who pays
her bills. She lets Lovelace in on the secret.
Before Clarissa can try to bolt, she comes down with a bad
fever. She'll only let Dorcas in the door.
Lovelace gets his old buddy, "Captain Tomlinson,"
to write recommending that Lovelace and Clarissa get married the following
week.
Even though she's super sick, Clarissa doesn't buy it. Also,
she just doesn't want to marry that dude anymore.