The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

After the first meeting, in which I only said what I had said before,

we parted, and he appointed me to come the next day to him, telling me

I might in the meantime satisfy myself of him by inquiry, which,

however, I knew not how well to do, having no acquaintance myself.

Accordingly I met him the next day, when I entered more freely with him

into my case. I told him my circumstances at large: that I was a

widow come over from America, perfectly desolate and friendless; that

I had a little money, and but a little, and was almost distracted for

fear of losing it, having no friend in the world to trust with the

management of it; that I was going into the north of England to live

cheap, that my stock might not waste; that I would willingly lodge my

money in the bank, but that I durst not carry the bills about me, and

the like, as above; and how to correspond about it, or with whom, I

knew not.

He told me I might lodge the money in the bank as an account, and its

being entered into the books would entitle me to the money at any time,

and if I was in the north I might draw bills on the cashier and receive

it when I would; but that then it would be esteemed as running cash,

and the bank would give no interest for it; that I might buy stock with

it, and so it would lie in store for me, but that then if I wanted to

dispose if it, I must come up to town on purpose to transfer it, and

even it would be with some difficulty I should receive the half-yearly

dividend, unless I was here in person, or had some friend I could trust

with having the stock in his name to do it for me, and that would have

the same difficulty in it as before; and with that he looked hard at me

and smiled a little. At last, says he, 'Why do you not get a head

steward, madam, that may take you and your money together into keeping,

and then you would have the trouble taken off your hands?' 'Ay, sir,

and the money too, it may be,' said I; 'for truly I find the hazard

that way is as much as 'tis t'other way'; but I remember I said

secretly to myself, 'I wish you would ask me the question fairly, I

would consider very seriously on it before I said No.' He went on a good way with me, and I thought once or twice he was in

earnest, but to my real affliction, I found at last he had a wife; but

when he owned he had a wife he shook his head, and said with some

concern, that indeed he had a wife, and no wife. I began to think he

had been in the condition of my late lover, and that his wife had been

distempered or lunatic, or some such thing. However, we had not much

more discourse at that time, but he told me he was in too much hurry of

business then, but that if I would come home to his house after their

business was over, he would by that time consider what might be done

for me, to put my affairs in a posture of security. I told him I would

come, and desired to know where he lived. He gave me a direction in

writing, and when he gave it me he read it to me, and said, 'There

'tis, madam, if you dare trust yourself with me.' 'Yes, sir,' said I,

'I believe I may venture to trust you with myself, for you have a wife,

you say, and I don't want a husband; besides, I dare trust you with my

money, which is all I have in the world, and if that were gone, I may

trust myself anywhere.' He said some things in jest that were very handsome and mannerly, and

would have pleased me very well if they had been in earnest; but that

passed over, I took the directions, and appointed to attend him at his

house at seven o'clock the same evening.