corrupt her; instead she is utterly repulsed by him, repeatedly refusing his offers of marriage despite her precarious situation as a fallen woman. She accuses him of deceiving and unlawfully detaining her and insists that he set her free. He continues to claim that the impersonators really were his family members and that his crime was simply one of desperate passion. He tries to convince her to marry him, alternating between threats and professions of love. She steadfastly resists and attempts several more escapes. Lovelace is forced to concede that Clarissa's virtue remains untarnished, but he begins to convince himself that the "trial" was not properly conducted. Since Clarissa was drugged at the time, she could neither consent nor refuse. He decides to orchestrate a second rape, but without drugs. Pretending to be angered by the discovery that she has bribed a servant to help her escape, Lovelace begins to menace Clarissa, intending to escalate the confrontation to physical violence but she threatens to kill herself with a pen-knife should he proceed. Utterly confounded by her righteous indignation and terrified by her willingness to die for her virtue, Lovelace retreats. More intent than ever to make Clarissa his wife, Lovelace is called away to attend his dying uncle from whom he is expecting to inherit an Earldom. He orders the prostitutes to keep Clarissa confined but well-treated until he returns. Clarissa escapes; however, the brothel madam is able to have her jailed for a few days for unpaid bills, and Clarissa finds sanctuary with a shopkeeper and his wife when she is released. Corresponding with Lovelace's real family, she discovers for herself the true extent of his deception. She lives in constant fear of being found by him again, as he continues to send her marriage offers through his disreputable friend, John Belford, as well as through his own family members. Clarissa is determined not to accept. She becomes dangerously ill from the stress, rarely eating, convinced that she will die soon. Her illness progresses. She and Belford become correspondents. She appoints him executor of her will as she puts all of her affairs in order to the alarm of the people around her. Belford is amazed at the way Clarissa handles her approaching death and laments what Lovelace has done. In one of the many letters sent to Lovelace, he writes, "if the divine Clarissa asks me to slit