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
She had very penetrating eyes this way, and never made a conquest
without knowing she did so; she was not, therefore, wanting in all those
little artifices she had but too much made her study, in order to fix
the impression she had given this stranger as indelible as possible:
this she had a very good opportunity for doing; he staid the whole
afternoon, drank tea with the ladies, and left them not till a crowd of
company coming in, he thought good manners obliged him to retire.
Miss Betsy was filled with the most impatient curiosity to know the name
and character of this person, whom she had already set down in her mind
as a new adorer: she asked Miss Flora, when they were going to bed, as
if it were a matter of indifference to her, and merely for the sake of
chat, who that gentleman was who had dined with them, and made so long
a visit; but that young lady had never seen him before, and was as
ignorant of every thing concerning him as herself.
Miss Betsy, however, lost no part of her repose that night, on this
account, as she doubted not but she should very soon be informed by
himself of all she wished to know: she was but just out of bed the next
morning, when a maid-servant came into the chamber and delivered a
letter to her, which she told her was brought by a porter, who waited
for an answer.
Miss Betsy's heart fluttered at the mention of a letter, flattering
herself it came from the person who at present engrossed her thoughts;
but on taking it from the maid, found a woman's hand on the
superscription, and one perfectly known to her, though at that instant
she could not recollect to whom it belonged: she was a good deal
surprized, when, on breaking the seal, she found it came from Miss
Forward, with whom, as well as the best of the boarding-school ladies,
she had ceased all correspondence for many months. The contents were
these.
'To Miss Betsy Thoughtless.
Dear Miss Betsy,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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