Letter XXIII
- In his letter, Pamela describes the discussion at one of Mr. B's dinner parties (as relayed by the male servants who were present). Apparently, Pamela and her various virtues and assets were a topic of conversation, as the visiting ladies had heard a lot about her.
- You know, because women always sit around talking about how beautiful their friends' servants are, right ladies?
- They also demanded to meet this "paragon" (26.4).
- And meet her they did, Pamela reports. She describes a super embarrassing encounter in which she presented herself for the ladies to size up, with a couple of them being very "free" in their descriptions of her appeal.
- (We're kind of picturing a bunch of sorority girls sizing up the new recruits, but without the red pens.)
- Pamela managed to escape their company politely, leaving them to extol Pamela's shape and how "prettily" she responded to some of their more inappropriate banter (26.18).
- Now Pamela is even more afraid, since the ladies apparently took their compliments back to Mr. B, which she believes could only encourage more bad behavior).
- She's going to leave a week from today, definitely. For sure. And she's going to try on the more modest set of clothes she's collected for her return.