Pamela Chapter 85 Summary

Thursday, Near Three O'clock / Eight O'clock at Night / Ten O'clock at Night

  • So, this isn't exactly how we expected to find Pamela spending her wedding night: Three friends of Mr. B's have made a surprise visit, so Pamela will not be dining with him (due to that whole secrecy thing).
  • She then describes everything that happened after she went down to breakfast with Mr. Williams and Mr. Peters.
  • After the meal, the company heads off to the chapel. Pamela was extremely nervous, but they made it through the service.
  • Which means, Pamela informs her parents, she is now married to Mr. B.
  • Talk about an anticlimax!
  • They then all ate and drank in the parlor, where Mr. B announced that he would confer the living upon Mr. Williams that he had always intended. He also gave Mr. Williams some cash in advance to help set that up.
  • Everyone agreed to keep the wedding secret for a few days.
  • When the guests left, Pamela and Mr. B went for a ride in the chariot, and he tried to quiet Pamela's nerves.
  • When they got home, they discovered that Mr. B had received a surprise visit from Sir Charles Hargrave and two other men. Mr. B was super annoyed, as he and Pamela had planned to spend their wedding day together. Which seems reasonable.
  • Pamela went back up to her room—or rather, her and Mr. B's room—and still feels nervous.
  • Mr. B eventually came up to her and said he had a plan for preventing his boisterous guests from staying too long: he's going to pretend he has to leave at a certain point, thereby forcing them to do so as well.
  • In the same conversation, he mentioned that Sir Charles had heard about Pamela and, like other guests before him, wanted Pamela paraded in front of them like a zoo animal. In this case, Mr. B declined.
  • Pamela then dined with Mrs. Jewkes, which was all kinds of awkward because Mrs. Jewkes wanted to act as Pamela's servant. Pamela was uncomfortable with that.
  • Mrs. Jewkes offered to tell a raunchy story to cheer Pamela up, but Pamela didn't want to hear it.
  • Finally, Mr. B gets rid of his visitors, and he and Pamela talk marriage and class.
  • They eat and drink (liquid courage, right?), and Pamela keeps getting more nervous.
  • Seeing this, Mr. B suggested that she might like some time alone to write. You know, because all brides want to make a journal entry before their wedding night.
  • At least, Pamela does.