The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

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 accountyou talk of.'

  'Well,' says he, 'you shall promise me to come again, however, and Iwill not say any more of it till I have gotten the divorce, but Idesire you will prepare to be better conditioned when that's done, foryou shall be the woman, or I will not be divorced at all; why, I owe itto your unlooked-for kindness, if it were to nothing else, but I haveother 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 thething was so remote, as it appeared to be, and that it was time enoughto accept of it when he was able to perform it; so I said veryrespectfully to him, it was time enough to consider of these thingswhen he was in a condition to talk of them; in the meantime, I toldhim, I was going a great way from him, and he would find objects enoughto please him better. We broke off here for the present, and he mademe promise him to come again the next day, for his resolutions upon myown business, which after some pressing I did; though had he seenfarther into me, I wanted no pressing on that account.

  I came the next evening, accordingly, and brought my maid with me, tolet him see that I kept a maid, but I sent her away as soon as I wasgone in. He would have had me let the maid have stayed, but I wouldnot, 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, bythe way, I was not very well pleased with, supposing he might do that toknow where I lived and inquire into my character and circumstances.However, I ventured that, for all that the people there or thereaboutknew 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 Iwas 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 anythingin the world, to preserve the character of their virtue, even whenperhaps they may have sacrificed the thing itself.

  I found, and was not a little please with it, that he had provided asupper for me. I found also he lived very handsomely, and had a housevery handsomely furnished; all of which I was rejoiced at indeed, for Ilooked upon it as all my own.

  We had now a second conference upon the subject-matter of the lastconference. He laid his business very home indeed; he protested hisaffection to me, and indeed I had no room to doubt it; he declared thatit began from the first moment I talked with him, and long before I hadmentioned leaving my effects with him. ''Tis no matter when it began,'thought I; 'if it will but hold, 'twill be well enough.' He then toldme how much the offer I had made of trusting him with my effects, andleaving them to him, had engaged him. 'So I intended it should,'thought I, 'but then I thought you had been a single man too.' Afterwe had supped, I observed he pressed me very hard to drink two or threeglasses of wine, which, however, I declined, but drank one glass ortwo. He then told me he had a proposal to make to me, which I shouldpromise him I would not take ill if I should not grant it. I told himI hoped he would make no dishonourable proposal to me, especially inhis own house, and that if it was such, I desired he would not proposeit, that I might not be obliged to offer any resentment to him that didnot become the respect I professed for him, and the trust I had placedin him in coming to his house; and begged of him he would give me leaveto go away, and accordingly began to put on my gloves and prepare to begone, though at the same time I no more intended it than he intended tolet me.

  Well, he importuned me not to talk of going; he assured me he had nodishonourable thing in his thoughts about me, and was very far fromoffering anything to me that was dishonourable, and if I thought so, hewould choose to say no more of it.

  That part I did not relish at all. I told him I was ready to hearanything that he had to say, depending that he would say nothingunworthy of himself, or unfit for me to hear. Upon this, he told mehis proposal was this: that I would marry him, though he had not yetobtained the divorce from the whore his wife; and to satisfy me that hemeant honourably, he would promise not to desire me to live with him,or go to bed with him till the divorce was obtained. My heart said yesto this offer at first word, but it was necessary to play the hypocritea little more with him; so I seemed to decline the motion with somewarmth, and besides a little condemning the thing as unfair, told himthat such a proposal could be of no signification, but to entangle usboth in great difficulties; for if he should not at last obtain thedivorce, yet we could not dissolve the marriage, neither could weproceed in it; so that if he was disappointed in the divorce, I lefthim to consider what a condition we should both be in.

  In short, I carried on the argument against this so far, that Iconvinced him it was not a proposal that had any sense in it. Well,then he went from it to another, and that was, that I would sign andseal a contract with him, conditioning to marry him as soon as thedivorce was obtained, and to be void if he could not obtain it.

  I told him such a thing was more rational than the other; but as thiswas the first time that ever I could imagine him weak enough to be inearnest in this affair, I did not use to say Yes at first asking; Iwould consider of it.

  I played with this lover as an angler does with a trout. I found I hadhim fast on the hook, so I jested with his new proposal, and put himoff. I told him he knew little of me, and bade him inquire about me; Ilet him also go home with me to my lodging, though I would not ask himto go in, for I told him it was not decent.

  In short, I ventured to avoid signing a contract of marriage, and thereason why I did it was because the lady that had invited me soearnestly to go with her into Lancashire insisted so positively uponit, and promised me such great fortunes, and such fine things there,that I was tempted to go and try. 'Perhaps,' said I, 'I may mendmyself very much'; and then I made no scruple in my thoughts ofquitting my honest citizen, whom I was not so much in love with as notto leave him for a richer.

  In a word, I avoided a contract; but told him I would go into thenorth, that he should know where to write to me by the consequence ofthe business I had entrusted with him; that I would give him asufficient pledge of my respect for him, for I would leave almost all Ihad in the world in his hands; and I would thus far give him my word,that as soon as he had sued out a divorce from his first wife, he wouldsend me an account of it, I would come up to London, and that then wewould talk seriously of the matter.

  It was a base design I went with, that I must confess, though I wasinvited thither with a design much worse than mine was, as the sequelwill discover. Well, I went with my friend, as I called her, intoLancashire. All the way we went she caressed me with the utmostappearance of a sincere, undissembled affection; treated me, except mycoach-hire, all the way; and her brother brought a gentleman's coach toWarrington to receive us, and we were carried from thence to Liverpoolwith as much ceremony as I could desire. We were also entertained at amerchant's house in Liverpool three or four days very handsomely; Iforbear to tell his name, because of what followed. Then she told meshe would carry me to an uncle's house of hers, where we should benobly entertained. She did so; her uncle, as she called him, sent acoach and four horses for us, and we were carried near forty miles Iknow not whither.

  We came, however, to a gentleman's seat, where was a numerous family, alarge park, extraordinary company indeed, and where she was calledcousin. I told her if she had resolved to bring me into such companyas this, she should have let me have prepared myself, and havefurnished myself with better clothes. The ladies took notice of that,and told me very genteelly they did not value people in their countryso much by their clothes as they did in London; that their cousin hadfully informed them of my quality, and that I did not want clothes toset me off; in short, they entertained me, not like what I was, butlike what they thought I had been, namely, a widow lady of a greatfortune.

  The first discovery I made here was, that the family were all RomanCatholics, and the cousin too, whom I called my f
riend; however, I mustsay that nobody in the world could behave better to me, and I had allthe civility shown me that I could have had if I had been of theiropinion. The truth is, I had not so much principle of any kind as tobe nice in point of religion, and I presently learned to speakfavourably of the Romish Church; particularly, I told them I saw littlebut the prejudice of education in all the difference that were amongChristians about religion, and if it had so happened that my father hadbeen a Roman Catholic, I doubted not but I should have been as wellpleased with their religion as my own.

  This obliged them in the highest degree, and as I was besieged day andnight with good company and pleasant discourse, so I had two or threeold ladies that lay at me upon the subject of religion too. I was socomplaisant, that though I would not completely engage, yet I made noscruple to be present at their mass, and to