William looked very affectionately upon me. "Nay," says he, "we have
embarked together so long, and come together so far, I am resolved I
will never part with thee as long as I live, go where thou wilt, or stay
where thou wilt; and as for my sister," said William, "I cannot send her
such a sum of money, for whose is all this money we have? It is most of
it thine."
"No, William," said I, "there is not a penny of it mine but what is
yours too, and I won't have anything but an equal share with you, and
therefore you shall send it to her; if not, I will send it."
"Why," says William, "it will make the poor woman distracted; she will
be so surprised she will go out of her wits."
"Well," said I, "William, you may do it prudently; send her a bill
backed of a hundred pounds, and bid her expect more in a post or two,
and that you will send her enough to live on without keeping shop, and
then send her more."
Accordingly William sent her a very kind letter, with a bill upon a
merchant in London for a hundred and sixty pounds, and bid her comfort
herself with the hope that he should be able in a little time to send
her more. About ten days after, he sent her another bill of five hundred
and forty pounds; and a post or two after, another for three hundred
pounds, making in all a thousand pounds; and told her he would send her
sufficient to leave off her shop, and directed her to take a house as
above.
He waited then till he received an answer to all the three letters, with
an account that she had received the money, and, which I did not expect,
that she had not let any other acquaintance know that she had received
a shilling from anybody, or so much as that he was alive, and would not
till she had heard again.
When he showed me this letter, "Well, William," said I, "this woman is
fit to be trusted with life or anything; send her the rest of the five
thousand pounds, and I'll venture to England with you, to this woman's
house, whenever you will."
In a word, we sent her five thousand pounds in good bills; and she
received them very punctually, and in a little time sent her brother
word that she had pretended to her uncle that she was sickly and could
not carry on the trade any longer, and that she had taken a large house
about four miles from London, under pretence of letting lodgings for
her livelihood; and, in short, intimated as if she understood that he
intended to come over to be _incognito_, assuring him he should be as
retired as he pleased.
This was opening the very door for us that we thought had been
effectually shut for this life; and, in a word, we resolved to venture,
but to keep ourselves entirely concealed, both as to name and every
other circumstance; and accordingly William sent his sister word how
kindly he took her prudent steps, and that she had guessed right that
he desired to be retired, and that he obliged her not to increase her
figure, but live private, till she might perhaps see him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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