The History of Miss Betsy ThoughtlessHaywood, Eliza Fowler
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The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless
Haywood, Eliza Fowler
Abused wives -- Fiction; Bildungsromans; Didactic fiction; England -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
The baronet, finding by this he had been guilty of an absurdity when he
intended a fine speech, thought to salve up the matter by saying, 'Sure,
you are a Diana, then!'--'Worse and worse!' cried Miss Betsy. 'I beseech
you, Sir, compare me to no such boisterous goddess, that runs up and
down, bare-footed and bare-legged, hunting wild boars in the
forest!'--'What shall I call you then?' resumed he. 'O, tell me by what
name you will be worshipped?'--'The lady's name, Sir Frederick,' cried
Mrs. Modely, 'is Miss Betsy Thoughtless.'--'Betsy!' said he; 'then Betsy
let it be. Betsy shall henceforth become more famous than Cytherea was
of old!'
He was going on with this fulsome stuff, in which he was often exposed
by the ready wit of Miss Betsy, when a maid belonging to the house came
in, and told her that a gentleman in a hackney-coach was at the door,
and desired to speak with her. 'With me!' cried she, not able to guess
who should have followed her there. 'Pray, call my footman, and bid him
ask the person's name that enquires for me.' The maid did as she was
ordered; and Miss Betsy's servant presently after brought her this
intelligence--'Mr. Munden, Madam,' said he, 'not finding you at home,
has taken the liberty to call on you here, in order to conduct you where
you are to pass the evening.'--'He must be a happy man, indeed, that
dare take such liberties,' cried Sir Frederick, somewhat fiercely. 'Many
take more than they are allowed to do,' said Miss Betsy. 'Go,' continued
she to the fellow, 'and tell him my mind is changed; that I cannot leave
the company I am with, and will not go.' Mr. Munden having received this
message, ordered the coachman to drive away, very much dissatisfied, as
the reader may easily suppose.
Miss Betsy, the day before, had agreed to pass this evening with the
ladies at St. James's, and some others, to play at commerce; a game then
very much in vogue. Mr. Munden was to be one of the company; and calling
at Miss Betsy's lodgings, in hopes of having some time with her before
this meeting, the maid, who had not lived long enough with her mistress
to know her humour, presently told him, she was only gone to her
mantua-maker's, and gave him directions to the house; he also thinking
it no indecorum to call on her at the house of a woman of that
profession, had reason enough to be mortified at the repulse he met with
for so doing.
As to Miss Betsy, though she was a little angry at the freedom Mr.
Munden had taken, yet she was in reality much more pleased; and this for
two reasons: first, because she saw it gave her new lover some jealous
apprehensions; and, secondly, because it furnished her with a plausible
pretence for complying with his entreaties to stay; which, she
protested, she would not on any terms have been prevailed upon to do,
but to prevent either him or Mrs. Modely from suspecting she would go
where Mr. Munden had desired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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