Chapter 11
Containing curious, but not unprecedented matter
There was a lady, one Mrs. Hunt, who had often seen Jones at the
house where he lodged, being intimately acquainted with the women
there, and indeed a very great friend to Mrs. Miller. Her age was
about thirty, for she owned six-and-twenty; her face and person very
good, only inclining a little too much to be fat. She had been married
young by her relations to an old Turkey merchant, who, having got a
great fortune, had left off trade. With him she lived without
reproach, but not without pain, in a state of great self-denial, for
about twelve years; and her virtue was rewarded by his dying and
leaving her very rich. The first year of her widowhood was just at
an end, and she had past it in a good deal of retirement, seeing
only a few particular friends, and dividing her time between her
devotions and novels, of which she was always extremely fond. Very
good health, a very warm constitution, and a good deal of religion,
made it absolutely necessary for her to marry again; and she
resolved to please herself in her second husband, as she had done
her friends in the first. From her the following billet was brought to
Jones:-
SIR,
From the first day I saw you, I doubt my eyes have told you too
plainly that you were not indifferent to me; but neither my tongue nor
my hand should have ever avowed it, had not the ladies of the family
where you are lodged given me such a character of you, and told me
such proofs of your virtue and goodness, as convince me you are not
only the most agreeable, but the most worthy of men.
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