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
'I read this letter over and over, as you may easily guess, by my
remembering the contents of it so perfectly; but it is impossible for me
to express the perplexity I was in how to reply to it. I do not mean how
to excuse myself from granting the interview he so passionately
requested; for that, perhaps, I wished for with as much impatience as he
could do; but I was distracted at not being able to contrive any
practicable method for our meeting.
'O Miss Betsy, how did I long for you, or such a friend as you, to
assist me in this dilemma! But there was not one person in the whole
house I dared trust with such a secret: I could not eat a bit of dinner,
nor scarce speak a word to any body, so much were my thoughts taken up
with what I should do. I was resolved to see him, and hear what he had
to say, whatever should be the consequence: at last I hit upon a way,
dangerous indeed in every respect, and shameful in a girl of my
condition; yet, as there was no other, the frenzy I was possessed of,
compelled me to have recourse to it.
'You must remember, my dear Miss Betsy,' continued she, with a deep
sigh, 'the little door at the farther end of the garden, where, by your
kind contrivance, young Sparkish was introduced: it was at this door I
determined to meet Mr. Wildly. This, you may be sure, could not be done
by day without a discovery, some one or other being continually running
into the garden: I therefore fixed the rendezvous at night, at an hour
when I was positive all the family would be in bed; and ordered it in
this manner.
'Chance aided my ill genius in my undoing; I lay at that time alone;
Miss Bab, who used to be my bedfellow, was gone home for a fortnight, on
account of a great wedding in their family; and I thought I could easily
slip down stairs, when every body was asleep, and go through the
kitchen, from which, you know, there is a passage into the garden. I
took no care for any thing, but to prevent the disappointment of my
design; for I apprehended nothing of ill from a man who adored me, and
of whose will and actions I foolishly imagined I had the sole command.
'The settling this matter in my mind engrossed all my thoughts, till the
bell began to ring for divine service; and I had only time to write
these lines in answer to his billet.
"To Mr. Wildly.
Sir,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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