The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

Upon his coming up to them, for they were all still together, 'Sit

down, Robin,' says the old lady, 'I must have some talk with you.'

'With all my heart, madam,' says Robin, looking very merry. 'I hope it

is about a good wife, for I am at a great loss in that affair.' 'How

can that be?' says his mother; 'did not you say you resolved to have

Mrs. Betty?' 'Ay, madam,' says Robin, 'but there is one has forbid the

banns.' 'Forbid, the banns!' says his mother; 'who can that be?' 'Even

Mrs. Betty herself,' says Robin. 'How so?' says his mother. 'Have you

asked her the question, then?' 'Yes, indeed, madam,' says Robin. 'I

have attacked her in form five times since she was sick, and am beaten

off; the jade is so stout she won't capitulate nor yield upon any

terms, except such as I cannot effectually grant.' 'Explain yourself,'

says the mother, 'for I am surprised; I do not understand you. I hope

you are not in earnest.' 'Why, madam,' says he, 'the case is plain enough upon me, it explains

itself; she won't have me, she says; is not that plain enough? I think

'tis plain, and pretty rough too.' 'Well, but,' says the mother, 'you

talk of conditions that you cannot grant; what does she want--a

settlement? Her jointure ought to be according to her portion; but

what fortune does she bring you?' 'Nay, as to fortune,' says Robin,

'she is rich enough; I am satisfied in that point; but 'tis I that am

not able to come up to her terms, and she is positive she will not have

me without.' Here the sisters put in. 'Madam,' says the second sister, ''tis

impossible to be serious with him; he will never give a direct answer

to anything; you had better let him alone, and talk no more of it to

him; you know how to dispose of her out of his way if you thought there

was anything in it.' Robin was a little warmed with his sister's

rudeness, but he was even with her, and yet with good manners too.

'There are two sorts of people, madam,' says he, turning to his mother,

'that there is no contending with; that is, a wise body and a fool;

'tis a little hard I should engage with both of them together.' The younger sister then put in. 'We must be fools indeed,' says she,

'in my brother's opinion, that he should think we can believe he has

seriously asked Mrs. Betty to marry him, and that she has refused him.' 'Answer, and answer not, say Solomon,' replied her brother. 'When your

brother had said to your mother that he had asked her no less than five

times, and that it was so, that she positively denied him, methinks a

younger sister need not question the truth of it when her mother did

not.' 'My mother, you see, did not understand it,' says the second

sister. 'There's some difference,' says Robin, 'between desiring me to

explain it, and telling me she did not believe it.' 'Well, but, son,' says the old lady, 'if you are disposed to let us

into the mystery of it, what were these hard conditions?' 'Yes, madam,'

says Robin, 'I had done it before now, if the teasers here had not

worried my by way of interruption. The conditions are, that I bring my

father and you to consent to it, and without that she protests she will

never see me more upon that head; and to these conditions, as I said, I

suppose I shall never be able to grant. I hope my warm sisters will be

answered now, and blush a little; if not, I have no more to say till I

hear further.' This answer was surprising to them all, though less to the mother,

because of what I had said to her. As to the daughters, they stood

mute a great while; but the mother said with some passion, 'Well, I had

heard this before, but I could not believe it; but if it is so, they we

have all done Betty wrong, and she has behaved better than I ever

expected.' 'Nay,' says the eldest sister, 'if it be so, she has acted

handsomely indeed.' 'I confess,' says the mother, 'it was none of her

fault, if he was fool enough to take a fancy to her; but to give such

an answer to him, shows more respect to your father and me than I can

tell how to express; I shall value the girl the better for it as long

as I know her.' 'But I shall not,' says Robin, 'unless you will give

your consent.' 'I'll consider of that a while,' says the mother; 'I

assure you, if there were not some other objections in the way, this

conduct of hers would go a great way to bring me to consent.' 'I wish

it would go quite through it,' says Robin; 'if you had a much thought

about making me easy as you have about making me rich, you would soon

consent to it.' 'Why, Robin,' says the mother again, 'are you really in earnest? Would

you so fain have her as you pretend?' 'Really, madam,' says Robin, 'I

think 'tis hard you should question me upon that head after all I have

said. I won't say that I will have her; how can I resolve that point,

when you see I cannot have her without your consent? Besides, I am not

bound to marry at all. But this I will say, I am in earnest in, that I

will never have anybody else if I can help it; so you may determine for

me. Betty or nobody is the word, and the question which of the two

shall be in your breast to decide, madam, provided only, that my

good-humoured sisters here may have no vote in it.' All this was dreadful to me, for the mother began to yield, and Robin

pressed her home on it. On the other hand, she advised with the eldest

son, and he used all the arguments in the world to persuade her to

consent; alleging his brother's passionate love for me, and my generous

regard to the family, in refusing my own advantages upon such a nice

point of honour, and a thousand such things. And as to the father, he

was a man in a hurry of public affairs and getting money, seldom at

home, thoughtful of the main chance, but left all those things to his

wife.