Excuse me, gentlemen and ladies, said I! you know my story, it seems; and
I am commanded, by one who has a title to all my obedience, to proceed.
They gave all of them bows of approbation, that they might not interrupt
me; and I continued my story--the men-servants withdrawing, at a motion
of Mr. B----, on my looking towards them: and then, at Lady Darnford's
coming in, I proceeded.
I told her ladyship, that I was still innocent, and would be so, and it
was injurious to suppose me otherwise. Why, tell me, wench, said she--
But I think I must not tell you what she said. Yes, do, said my master,
to clear my sister; we shall think it very bad else.
I held my hand before my face--Why, she said, Tell me, wench, hast thou
not been--hesitating--a very free creature with thy master? That she
said, or to that effect--And when I said, She asked strange questions,
and in strange words, she ridiculed my delicacy, as she called it; and
said, My niceness would not last long. She said, I must know I was not
really married, that my ring was only a sham, and all was my cunning to
cloak my yielding, and get better terms. She said, She knew the world as
much at thirty-two, as I did at sixteen; and bid me remember that.
I took the liberty to say, (but I got a good way off,) that I scorned her
ladyship's words, and was as much married as her ladyship.
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