Didactic fiction; Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
"When supper was ended," continued Booth, "the good woman began to
think of our further wants, and very earnestly recommended her bed to
us, saying, it was a very neat, though homely one, and that she could
furnish us with a pair of clean sheets. She added some persuasives
which painted my angel all over with vermilion. As for myself, I
behaved so awkwardly and foolishly, and so readily agreed to Amelia's
resolution of sitting up all night, that, if it did not give the nurse
any suspicion of our marriage, it ought to have inspired her with the
utmost contempt for me.
"We both endeavoured to prevail with nurse to retire to her own bed,
but found it utterly impossible to succeed; she thanked Heaven she
understood breeding better than that. And so well bred was the good
woman, that we could scarce get her out of the room the whole night.
Luckily for us, we both understood French, by means of which we
consulted together, even in her presence, upon the measures we were to
take in our present exigency. At length it was resolved that I should
send a letter by this young lad, whom I have just before mentioned, to
our worthy friend the doctor, desiring his company at our hut, since
we thought it utterly unsafe to venture to the town, which we knew
would be in an uproar on our account before the morning."
Here Booth made a full stop, smiled, and then said he was going to
mention so ridiculous a distress, that he could scarce think of it
without laughing. What this was the reader shall know in the next
chapter.
Chapter vii.
_The story of Booth continued.--More surprising adventures._
From what trifles, dear Miss Matthews," cried Booth, "may some of our
greatest distresses arise! Do you not perceive I am going to tell you
we had neither pen, ink, nor paper, in our present exigency?
"A verbal message was now our only resource; however, we contrived to
deliver it in such terms, that neither nurse nor her son could
possibly conceive any suspicion from it of the present situation of
our affairs. Indeed, Amelia whispered me, I might safely place any
degree of confidence in the lad; for he had been her foster-brother,
and she had a great opinion of his integrity. He was in truth a boy of
very good natural parts; and Dr Harrison, who had received him into
his family, at Amelia's recommendation, had bred him up to write and
read very well, and had taken some pains to infuse into him the
principles of honesty and religion. He was not, indeed, even now
discharged from the doctor's service, but had been at home with his
mother for some time, on account of the small-pox, from which he was
lately recovered.
"I have said so much," continued Booth, "of the boy's character, that
you may not be surprised at some stories which I shall tell you of him
hereafter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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