The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

I was now, as above, left loose to the world, and being still young and

handsome, as everybody said of me, and I assure you I thought myself

so, and with a tolerable fortune in my pocket, I put no small value

upon myself. I was courted by several very considerable tradesmen, and

particularly very warmly by one, a linen-draper, at whose house, after

my husband's death, I took a lodging, his sister being my acquaintance.

Here I had all the liberty and all the opportunity to be gay and appear

in company that I could desire, my landlord's sister being one of the

maddest, gayest things alive, and not so much mistress of her virtue as

I thought as first she had been. She brought me into a world of wild

company, and even brought home several persons, such as she liked well

enough to gratify, to see her pretty widow, so she was pleased to call

me, and that name I got in a little time in public. Now, as fame and

fools make an assembly, I was here wonderfully caressed, had abundance

of admirers, and such as called themselves lovers; but I found not one

fair proposal among them all. As for their common design, that I

understood too well to be drawn into any more snares of that kind. The

case was altered with me: I had money in my pocket, and had nothing to

say to them. I had been tricked once by that cheat called love, but

the game was over; I was resolved now to be married or nothing, and to

be well married or not at all.

I loved the company, indeed, of men of mirth and wit, men of gallantry

and figure, and was often entertained with such, as I was also with

others; but I found by just observation, that the brightest men came

upon the dullest errand--that is to say, the dullest as to what I aimed

at. On the other hand, those who came with the best proposals were the

dullest and most disagreeable part of the world. I was not averse to a

tradesman, but then I would have a tradesman, forsooth, that was

something of a gentleman too; that when my husband had a mind to carry

me to the court, or to the play, he might become a sword, and look as

like a gentleman as another man; and not be one that had the mark of

his apron-strings upon his coat, or the mark of his hat upon his

periwig; that should look as if he was set on to his sword, when his

sword was put on to him, and that carried his trade in his countenance.