The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

We parted at last, though with the utmost reluctance on my side; and

indeed he took his leave very unwillingly too, but necessity obliged

him, for his reasons were very good why he would not come to London, as

I understood more fully some time afterwards.

I gave him a direction how to write to me, though still I reserved the

grand secret, and never broke my resolution, which was not to let him

ever know my true name, who I was, or where to be found; he likewise

let me know how to write a letter to him, so that, he said, he would be

sure to receive it.

I came to London the next day after we parted, but did not go directly

to my old lodgings; but for another nameless reason took a private

lodging in St. John's Street, or, as it is vulgarly called, St.

Jones's, near Clerkenwell; and here, being perfectly alone, I had

leisure to sit down and reflect seriously upon the last seven months'

ramble I had made, for I had been abroad no less. The pleasant hours I

had with my last husband I looked back on with an infinite deal of

pleasure; but that pleasure was very much lessened when I found some

time after that I was really with child.

This was a perplexing thing, because of the difficulty which was before

me where I should get leave to lie in; it being one of the nicest

things in the world at that time of day for a woman that was a

stranger, and had no friends, to be entertained in that circumstance

without security, which, by the way, I had not, neither could I procure

any.

I had taken care all this while to preserve a correspondence with my

honest friend at the bank, or rather he took care to correspond with

me, for he wrote to me once a week; and though I had not spent my money

so fast as to want any from him, yet I often wrote also to let him know

I was alive. I had left directions in Lancashire, so that I had these

letters, which he sent, conveyed to me; and during my recess at St.

Jones's received a very obliging letter from him, assuring me that his

process for a divorce from his wife went on with success, though he met

with some difficulties in it that he did not expect.

I was not displeased with the news that his process was more tedious

than he expected; for though I was in no condition to have him yet, not

being so foolish to marry him when I knew myself to be with child by

another man, as some I know have ventured to do, yet I was not willing

to lose him, and, in a word, resolved to have him if he continued in

the same mind, as soon as I was up again; for I saw apparently I should

hear no more from my husband; and as he had all along pressed to marry,

and had assured me he would not be at all disgusted at it, or ever

offer to claim me again, so I made no scruple to resolve to do it if I

could, and if my other friend stood to his bargain; and I had a great

deal of reason to be assured that he would stand to it, by the letters

he wrote to me, which were the kindest and most obliging that could be.