The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

Well, after Mrs. Mayoress was gone, her two daughters came in, and they

called for the gentlewoman too, and they talked a long while to me, and

I answered them in my innocent way; but always, if they asked me

whether I resolved to be a gentlewoman, I answered Yes. At last one of

them asked me what a gentlewoman was? That puzzled me much; but,

however, I explained myself negatively, that it was one that did not go

to service, to do housework. They were pleased to be familiar with me,

and like my little prattle to them, which, it seems, was agreeable

enough to them, and they gave me money too.

As for my money, I gave it all to my mistress-nurse, as I called her,

and told her she should have all I got for myself when I was a

gentlewoman, as well as now. By this and some other of my talk, my old

tutoress began to understand me about what I meant by being a

gentlewoman, and that I understood by it no more than to be able to get

my bread by my own work; and at last she asked me whether it was not so.

I told her, yes, and insisted on it, that to do so was to be a

gentlewoman; 'for,' says I, 'there is such a one,' naming a woman that

mended lace and washed the ladies' laced-heads; 'she,' says I, 'is a

gentlewoman, and they call her madam.' 'Poor child,' says my good old nurse, 'you may soon be such a

gentlewoman as that, for she is a person of ill fame, and has had two

or three bastards.' I did not understand anything of that; but I answered, 'I am sure they

call her madam, and she does not go to service nor do housework'; and

therefore I insisted that she was a gentlewoman, and I would be such a

gentlewoman as that.

The ladies were told all this again, to be sure, and they made

themselves merry with it, and every now and then the young ladies, Mr.

Mayor's daughters, would come and see me, and ask where the little

gentlewoman was, which made me not a little proud of myself.

This held a great while, and I was often visited by these young ladies,

and sometimes they brought others with them; so that I was known by it

almost all over the town.

I was now about ten years old, and began to look a little womanish, for

I was mighty grave and humble, very mannerly, and as I had often heard

the ladies say I was pretty, and would be a very handsome woman, so you

may be sure that hearing them say so made me not a little proud.

However, that pride had no ill effect upon me yet; only, as they often

gave me money, and I gave it to my old nurse, she, honest woman, was so

just to me as to lay it all out again for me, and gave me head-dresses,

and linen, and gloves, and ribbons, and I went very neat, and always

clean; for that I would do, and if I had rags on, I would always be

clean, or else I would dabble them in water myself; but, I say, my good

nurse, when I had money given me, very honestly laid it out for me, and

would always tell the ladies this or that was bought with their money;

and this made them oftentimes give me more, till at last I was indeed

called upon by the magistrates, as I understood it, to go out to

service; but then I was come to be so good a workwoman myself, and the

ladies were so kind to me, that it was plain I could maintain

myself--that is to say, I could earn as much for my nurse as she was

able by it to keep me--so she told them that if they would give her

leave, she would keep the gentlewoman, as she called me, to be her

assistant and teach the children, which I was very well able to do; for

I was very nimble at my work, and had a good hand with my needle,

though I was yet very young.