It occurred to me presently, “I would have taken your word with all my heart, if you had but asked me the question;” but that was to myself. To him I replied, “Why, you shut the door against any honest woman accepting you, for you condemn all that should venture upon you at once, and conclude, that really a woman that takes you now can’t be honest.”
“Why,” says he, “I wish you would satisfy me that an honest woman would take me; I’d venture it;” and then turns short upon me, “Will you take me, madam?”
“That’s not a fair question,” says I, “after what you have said; however, lest you should think I wait only for a recantation of it, I shall answer you plainly, No, not I; my business is of another kind with you, and I did not expect you would have turned my serious application to you, in my own distracted case, into a comedy.”
“Why, madam,” says he, “my case is as distracted as yours can be, and I stand in as much need of advice as you do, for I think if I have not relief somewhere, I shall be made myself, and I know not what course to take, I protest to you.”
“Why, sir,” says I, “ ’tis easy to give advice in your case, much easier than it is in mine.” “Speak then,” says he, “I beg of you, for now you encourage me.”
“Why,” says I, “if your case is so plain as you say it is, you may be legally divorced, and then you may find honest women enough to ask the question of fairly; the sex is not so scarce that you can want a wife.”
“Well, then,” said he, “I am in earnest; I’ll take your advice; but shall I ask you one question seriously beforehand?”
“Any question,” said I, “but that you did before.”
“No, that answer will not do,” said he, “for, in short, that is the question I shall ask.”
“You may ask what questions you please, but you have my answer to that already,” said I. “Besides, sir,” said I, “can you think so ill of me as that I would give any answer to such a question beforehand? Can any woman alive believe you in earnest, or think you design anything but to banter her?”
“Well, well,” says he, “I do not banter you, I am in earnest; consider of it.”
“But, sir,” says I, a little gravely, “I came to you about my own business; I beg of you to let me know, what you will advise me to do?”
“I will be prepared,” says he, “against you come again.”
“Nay,” says I, “you have forbid my coming any more.”
“Why so?” said he, and looked a little surprised.
“Because,” said I, “you can’t expect I should visit you on the account you talk of.”
“Well,” says he, “you shall promise me to come again, however, and I will not say any more of it till I have gotten the divorce, but I desire you will prepare to be better conditioned when that’s done, for you shall be the woman, or I will not be divorced at all; why, I owe it to your unlooked-for kindness, if it were to nothing else, but I have other reasons too.”
He could not have said anything in the world that pleased me better; however, I knew that the way to secure him was to stand off while the thing was so remote, as it appeared to be, and that it was time enough to accept of it when he was able to perform it; so I said very respectfully to him, it was time enough to consider of these things when he was in a condition to talk of them; in the meantime, I told him, I was going a great way from him, and he would find objects enough to please him better. We broke off here for the present, and he made me promise him to come again the next day, for his resolutions upon my own business, which after some pressing I did; though had he seen farther into me, I wanted no pressing on that account.
I came the next evening, accordingly, and brought my maid with me, to let him see that I kept a maid, but I sent her away as soon as I was gone in. He would have had me let the maid have stayed, but I would not, but ordered her aloud to come for me again about nine o’clock. But he forbade that, and told me he would see me safe home, which, by the way, I was not very well pleased with, supposing he might do that to know where I lived and inquire into my character and circumstances. However, I ventured that, for all that the people there or thereabout knew of me, was to my advantage; and all the character he had of me, after he had inquired, was that I was a woman of fortune, and that I was a very modest, sober body; which, whether true or not in the main, yet you may see how necessary it is for all women who expect anything in the world, to preserve the character of their virtue, even when perhaps they may have sacrificed the thing itself.
I found, and was not a little please with it, that he had provided a supper for me. I found also he lived very handsomely, and had a house very handsomely furnished; all of which I was rejoiced at indeed, for I looked upon it as all my own.
We had now a second conference upon the subject-matter of the last conference. He laid his business very home indeed; he protested his affection to me, and indeed I had no room to doubt it; he declared that it began from the first moment I talked with him, and long before I had mentioned leaving my effects with him. “ ’Tis no matter when it began,” thought I;
