Letter XII
- This letter is for Pamela's mother. No boys allowed!
- It picks up right after Pamela returned to her room after recovering herself in the garden.
- Her first thought was to run away with the clothes she was wearing. Problem #1: traveling alone might just invite the kind of trouble she was trying to avoid in the first place.
- Problem #2: her hand-me-down clothes are so nice that people might think of her as a thief.
- For the meantime, Pamela says, she asked Mrs. Jervis if she could bunk with her, and then told her everything over dinner.
- Mrs. Jervis was upset for Pamela but begged her not to leave, arguing that Pamela's behavior was so virtuous that the master would be too ashamed to try again.
- Right …
- Anyway, she decides to stay, and then she started writing that long letter she mentioned in her last letter, which subsequently disappeared from its hiding place under the toilet.
- Brain Snack: no, Pamela didn't actually stick the letter in a toilet. "Toilet" in the eighteenth-century meant "dressing table." Read all about it here.
- As she has already mentioned, subsequent to the theft, Mr. B got incredibly squirrelly about the amount of time she spends writing. Also, he's been pretty grouchy in general, which suggests to her that he has seen the letter. So, basically things majorly suck.