expect it. A plain night-gown will do very well.'
'But if I must be plain with you, madam,' said Amelia, 'I have no other cloathes but what I have now on my back. I have not even a clean shift in the world; for you must know, my dear,' said she to Booth, 'that little Betty is walked off this morning, and hath carried all my linen with her.'
'How, my dear?' cries Booth; 'little Betty robbed you?'
'It is even so,' answered Amelia. Indeed, she spoke truth; for little Betty, having perceived the evening before that her mistress was moving her goods, was willing to lend all the assistance in her power, and had accordingly moved off early that morning, taking with her whatever she could lay her hands on.
Booth expressed himself with some passion on the occasion, and swore he would make an example of the girl. 'If the little slut be above ground,' cried he, 'I will find her out, and bring her to justice.'
'I am really sorry for this accident,' said Mrs. James, 'and (though I know not how to mention it) I beg you'll give me leave to offer you any linen of mine till you can make new of your own.'
Amelia thanked Mrs. James, but declined the favour, saying, she should do well enough at home; and that, as she had no servant now to take care of her children, she could not, nor would not, leave them on any account.
'Then bring master and miss with you,' said Mrs. James. 'You shall positively dine with us tomorrow.'
'I beg, madam, you will mention it no more,' said Amelia; 'for, besides the substantial reasons I have already given, I have some things on my mind at present which make me unfit for company; and I am resolved nothing shall prevail on me to stir from home.' Mrs. James had carried her invitation already to the very utmost limits of good breeding, if not beyond them. She desisted therefore from going any further, and, after some short stay longer, took her leave, with many expressions of concern, which, however, great as it was, left her heart and her mouth together before she was out of the house.
Booth now declared that he would go in pursuit of little Betty, against whom he vowed so much vengeance, that Amelia endeavoured to moderate his anger by representing to him the girl's youth, and that this was the first fault she had ever been guilty of. 'Indeed,' says she, 'I should be very glad to have my things again, and I would have the girl too punished in some degree, which might possibly be for her own good; but I tremble to think of taking away her life;' for Booth in his rage had sworn he would hang her.
'I know the tenderness of your heart, my dear,' said Booth, 'and I love you for it; but I must beg leave to dissent from your opinion. I do not think the girl in any light an object of mercy. She is not only guilty of dishonesty but of cruelty; for she must know our situation and the very little we had left. She is besides guilty of ingratitude to you, who have treated her with so much kindness, that you have rather acted the part of a mother than of a mistress. And, so far from thinking her youth an excuse, I think it rather an aggravation. It is true, indeed, there are faults which the youth of the party very strongly recommends to our pardon. Such are all those which proceed from carelessness and want of thought; but crimes of this black dye, which are committed with deliberation, and imply a bad mind, deserve a more severe punishment in a young person than in one of riper years; for what must the mind be in old age which hath acquired such a degree of perfection in villany so very early? Such persons as these it is really a charity to the public to put out of the society; and, indeed, a religious man would put them out of the world for the sake of themselves; for whoever understands anything of human nature must know that such people, the longer they live, the more they will accumulate vice and wickedness.'
'Well, my dear,' cries Amelia, 'I cannot argue with you on these subjects. I shall always submit to your superior judgment, and I know you too well to think that you will ever do anything cruel.'
Booth then left Amelia to take care of her children, and went in pursuit of the thief.
Chapter 6
A Scene Of The Tragic Kind
