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
Whenever he thought of Miss Betsy, as it was impossible a young lady he
once loved with so much tenderness should not sometimes come into his
thoughts, it was only with a friendly concern for her imagined fall. 'It
is no wonder,' would he often say to himself, 'that so young and lovely
a creature, under the tuition of a woman of Lady Mellasin's character,
and the constant companion of one of Miss Flora's disposition, endued
with charms to excite the warmest wishes, and unprovided with sufficient
arms for her defence, should have yielded to the temptations of an
unwarrantable flame.' In fine, he pitied her, but no more.
Thus entirely freed from all prepossession, and his heart almost in the
same situation as before he ever knew what it was to love, he was easily
persuaded by his friends to give over all thoughts of going into the
country, and stay to partake, in a moderate way, those pleasures of the
town, which the many uneasy moments he had sustained, during his
courtship with Miss Betsy, had kept him hitherto from having any relish
for.
But this state of indifference lasted not long; an object presented
itself to him, inspiring him with a passion, which had so much of reason
for its guide, as made him think it rather his glory, than his
misfortune, to be a second time enslaved.
Among all the friends and acquaintance he had in town, there was none he
more valued and esteemed than Sir Bazil Loveit: they had been for some
time inseparable companions; but accidents, either on the one side or
the other, having hindered their meeting for several days, Mr. Trueworth
went one morning to visit him at his house. He found him at home, but
the hall so incumbered with trunks and boxes, that there was scarce a
passage to the parlour-door. 'Welcome, my dear friend!' said Sir Bazil,
who, having seen him from a window, ran down stairs to receive him: 'you
find me in a strange disorder here; but I have got a couple of women out
of the country; and that sex, I think, like a general officer, can never
move without a waggon-load of trumpery at their tail.'--'What, married!'
cried Mr. Trueworth. 'No, 'faith,' said the other; 'but the arrival of
two sisters last night from Staffordshire, gives me a sort of specimen
of the hurry I am to expect when I become a husband.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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