The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

'Because,' said I, 'you can't expect I should visit you on the account

you talk of.' 'Well,' says he, 'you shall promise me to come again, however, and I

will not say any more of it till I have gotten the divorce, but I

desire you will prepare to be better conditioned when that's done, for

you shall be the woman, or I will not be divorced at all; why, I owe it

to your unlooked-for kindness, if it were to nothing else, but I have

other reasons too.' He could not have said anything in the world that pleased me better;

however, I knew that the way to secure him was to stand off while the

thing was so remote, as it appeared to be, and that it was time enough

to accept of it when he was able to perform it; so I said very

respectfully to him, it was time enough to consider of these things

when he was in a condition to talk of them; in the meantime, I told

him, I was going a great way from him, and he would find objects enough

to please him better. We broke off here for the present, and he made

me promise him to come again the next day, for his resolutions upon my

own business, which after some pressing I did; though had he seen

farther into me, I wanted no pressing on that account.

I came the next evening, accordingly, and brought my maid with me, to

let him see that I kept a maid, but I sent her away as soon as I was

gone in. He would have had me let the maid have stayed, but I would

not, but ordered her aloud to come for me again about nine o'clock.

But he forbade that, and told me he would see me safe home, which, by

the way, I was not very well please with, supposing he might do that to

know where I lived and inquire into my character and circumstances.

However, I ventured that, for all that the people there or thereabout

knew of me, was to my advantage; and all the character he had of me,

after he had inquired, was that I was a woman of fortune, and that I

was a very modest, sober body; which, whether true or not in the main,

yet you may see how necessary it is for all women who expect anything

in the world, to preserve the character of their virtue, even when

perhaps they may have sacrificed the thing itself.

I found, and was not a little please with it, that he had provided a

supper for me. I found also he lived very handsomely, and had a house

very handsomely furnished; all of which I was rejoiced at indeed, for I

looked upon it as all my own.