The History of Miss Betsy ThoughtlessHaywood, Eliza Fowler
General
The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless
Haywood, Eliza Fowler
Abused wives -- Fiction; Bildungsromans; Didactic fiction; England -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
'My husband, whose name is Oliver Marplus,' continued she, 'had the
honour of waiting on a nobleman belonging to court, when Sir Solomon
Mellasin had a post there: his lady, now unhappily yours, took a fancy
to him, and entered into a criminal conversation with him, some time
before her husband's death, and has ever since, unless very lately broke
off, continued it. On my first discovering it, he begged me to be easy;
and reminded me, that as he had nothing at present to depend upon,
having lost his place, but her ladyship's bounty, I ought to wink at it,
and be content that she should share his person, since I shared in the
benefits arising from their intercourse. I knowing his temper too well
not to know that any opposition I could make would be in vain, and
seeing no other remedy, was obliged to feign a consent to what the love
I then had for him rendered most terrible to me. Thus we went on, her
ladyship still supplying him with money, for our support; till he being
informed, that her marriage with you was near being consummated, he
bethought himself of a strategem to prevent the change of her condition
from depriving him of the continuance of her favour. It was this.
'Their private meetings were always in the Savoy, at a house of my
husband's chusing for that purpose, the master of it being his intimate
friend and companion. Myself, and two men, whom he made privy to the
plot, and were to personate officers of justice, were to be concealed in
the next room to the lovers, and as soon as we found they were in bed,
burst open the door, rush in, and catch them in the very act of shame.
'All this was executed according as it was contrived; my husband jumped
out of bed, pretended to struggle with the sham constables, and swore he
would murder me: I acted my part, as they since told me, to the life;
seemed a very fury; and said I did not care what became of me, if I was
but revenged upon my rival. Lady Mellasin tore her hair, wept, and
entreated me in the most abject terms to forgive, and not expose a woman
of her rank to publick scorn and infamy. To which I replied, that it was
not her quality should protect her! I loaded her with the most
inveterate reproaches I could think of. Indeed, there required not much
study for my doing so, for I heartily hated her. After some time passed
in beseechings on her side, and railings on mine, one of the pretended
constables took me aside, as if to persuade me to more moderation; while
the other talked to her, and insinuated as if a sum of money might
compromise the matter. My husband also told her, that though he detested
me for what I had done, yet he wished her ladyship, for her own sake,
would think of some way to pacify me; "For," said he, "a wife in these
cases has great power."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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