Didactic fiction; Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
"The next day at dinner my lord acquainted us that he had prevailed
with the bishop to write to the clergyman in the country; indeed, he
told us that he had engaged the bishop to be very warm in our
interest, and had not the least doubt of success. This threw us both
into a flow of spirits; and in the afternoon Mr. Bennet, at Mrs.
Ellison's request, which was seconded by his lordship, related the
history of our lives from our first acquaintance. My lord seemed much
affected with some tender scenes, which, as no man could better feel,
so none could better describe, than my husband. When he had finished,
my lord begged pardon for mentioning an occurrence which gave him such
a particular concern, as it had disturbed that delicious state of
happiness in which we had lived at our former lodging. 'It would be
ungenerous,' said he, 'to rejoice at an accident which, though it
brought me fortunately acquainted with two of the most agreeable
people in the world, was yet at the expense of your mutual felicity.
The circumstance, I mean, is your debt at Oxford; pray, how doth that
stand? I am resolved it shall never disturb your happiness hereafter.'
At these words the tears burst from my poor husband's eyes; and, in an
ecstasy of gratitude, he cried out, 'Your lordship overcomes me with
generosity. If you go on in this manner, both my wife's gratitude and
mine must be bankrupt' He then acquainted my lord with the exact state
of the case, and received assurances from him that the debt should
never trouble him. My husband was again breaking out into the warmest
expressions of gratitude, but my lord stopt him short, saying, 'If you
have any obligation, it is to my little Charley here, from whose
little innocent smiles I have received more than the value of this
trifling debt in pleasure.' I forgot to tell you that, when I offered
to leave the room after dinner upon my child's account, my lord would
not suffer me, but ordered the child to be brought to me. He now took
it out of my arms, placed it upon his own knee, and fed it with some
fruit from the dessert. In short, it would be more tedious to you than
to myself to relate the thousand little tendernesses he shewed to the
child. He gave it many baubles; amongst the rest was a coral worth at
least three pounds; and, when my husband was confined near a fortnight
to his chamber with a cold, he visited the child every day (for to
this infant's account were all the visits placed), and seldom failed
of accompanying his visit with a present to the little thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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