Sir, said I, after all that has passed, I should be unworthy, if I could
not say, that I can have no will but yours: And however awkwardly I shall
behave in such company, weighed down with a sense of your obligations on
one side, and my own unworthiness, with their observations on the other,
I will not scruple to obey you.
I am obliged to you, Pamela, said he, and pray be only dressed as you
are; for since they know your condition, and I have told them the story
of your present dress, and how you came by it, one of the young ladies
begs it as a favour, that they may see you just as you are: and I am the
rather pleased it should be so, because they will perceive you owe
nothing to dress, but make a much better figure with your own native
stock of loveliness, than the greatest ladies arrayed in the most
splendid attire, and adorned with the most glittering jewels.
O sir, said I, your goodness beholds your poor servant in a light greatly
beyond her merit! But it must not be expected, that others, ladies
especially, will look upon me with your favourable eyes: but,
nevertheless, I should be best pleased to wear always this humble garb,
till you, for your own sake, shall order it otherwise: for, oh, sir, said
I, I hope it will be always my pride to glory most in your goodness! and
it will be a pleasure to me to shew every one, that, with respect to my
happiness in this life, I am entirely the work of your bounty; and to let
the world see from what a lowly original you have raised me to honours,
that the greatest ladies would rejoice in.
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