by Daniel Defoe
neither of thesewas my case, so I looked like one that was to lie on hand.
This knowledge I soon learned by experience, viz. that the state ofthings was altered as to matrimony, and that I was not to expect atLondon what I had found in the country: that marriages were here theconsequences of politic schemes for forming interests, and carrying onbusiness, and that Love had no share, or but very little, in the matter.
That as my sister-in-law at Colchester had said, beauty, wit, manners,sense, good humour, good behaviour, education, virtue, piety, or anyother qualification, whether of body or mind, had no power torecommend; that money only made a woman agreeable; that men chosemistresses indeed by the gust of their affection, and it was requisiteto a whore to be handsome, well-shaped, have a good mien and a gracefulbehaviour; but that for a wife, no deformity would shock the fancy, noill qualities the judgment; the money was the thing; the portion wasneither crooked nor monstrous, but the money was always agreeable,whatever the wife was.
On the other hand, as the market ran very unhappily on the men's side,I found the women had lost the privilege of saying No; that it was afavour now for a woman to have the Question asked, and if any younglady had so much arrogance as to counterfeit a negative, she never hadthe opportunity given her of denying twice, much less of recoveringthat false step, and accepting what she had but seemed to decline. Themen had such choice everywhere, that the case of the women was veryunhappy; for they seemed to ply at every door, and if the man was bygreat chance refused at one house, he was sure to be received at thenext.
Besides this, I observed that the men made no scruple to set themselvesout, and to go a-fortunehunting, as they call it, when they had reallyno fortune themselves to demand it, or merit to deserve it; and thatthey carried it so high, that a woman was scarce allowed to inquireafter the character or estate of the person that pretended to her.This I had an example of, in a young lady in the next house to me, andwith whom I had contracted an intimacy; she was courted by a youngcaptain, and though she had near #2000 to her fortune, she did butinquire of some of his neighbours about his character, his morals, orsubstance, and he took occasion at the next visit to let her know,truly, that he took it very ill, and that he should not give her thetrouble of his visits any more. I heard of it, and I had begun myacquaintance with her, I went to see her upon it. She entered into aclose conversation with me about it, and unbosomed herself very freely.I perceived presently that though she thought herself very ill used,yet she had no power to resent it, and was exceedingly piqued that shehad lost him, and particularly that another of less fortune had gainedhim.
I fortified her mind against such a meanness, as I called it; I toldher, that as low as I was in the world, I would have despised a manthat should think I ought to take him upon his own recommendation only,without having the liberty to inform myself of his fortune and of hischaracter; also I told her, that as she had a good fortune, she had noneed to stoop to the disaster of the time; that it was enough that themen could insult us that had but little money to recommend us, but ifshe suffered such an affront to pass upon her without resenting it, shewould be rendered low-prized upon all occasions, and would be thecontempt of all the women in that part of the town; that a woman cannever want an opportunity to be revenged of a man that has used herill, and that there were ways enough to humble such a fellow as that,or else certainly women were the most unhappy creatures in the world.
I found she was very well pleased with the discourse, and she told meseriously that she would be very glad to make him sensible of her justresentment, and either to bring him on again, or have the satisfactionof her revenge being as public as possible.
I told her, that if she would take my advice, I would tell her how sheshould obtain her wishes in both those things, and that I would engageI would bring the man to her door again, and make him beg to be let in.She smiled at that, and soon let me see, that if he came to her door,her resentment was not so great as to give her leave to let him standlong there.
However, she listened very willingly to my offer of advice; so I toldher that the first thing she ought to do was a piece of justice toherself, namely, that whereas she had been told by several people thathe had reported among the ladies that he had left her, and pretended togive the advantage of the negative to himself, she should take care tohave it well spread among the women--which she could not fail of anopportunity to do in a neighbourhood so addicted to family news as thatshe live in was--that she had inquired into his circumstances, andfound he was not the man as to estate he pretended to be. 'Let them betold, madam,' said I, 'that you had been well informed that he was notthe man that you expected, and that you thought it was not safe tomeddle with him; that you heard he was of an ill temper, and that heboasted how he had used the women ill upon many occasions, and thatparticularly he was debauched in his morals', etc. The last of which,indeed, had some truth in it; but at the same time I did not find thatshe seemed to like him much the worse for that part.
As I had put this into her head, she came most readily into it.Immediately she went to work to find instruments, and she had verylittle difficulty in the search, for telling her story in general to acouple of gossips in the neighbourhood, it was the chat of thetea-table all over that part of the town, and I met with it wherever Ivisited; also, as it was known that I was acquainted with the younglady herself, my opinion was asked very often, and I confirmed it withall the necessary aggravations, and set out his character in theblackest colours; but then as a piece of secret intelligence, I added,as what the other gossips knew nothing of, viz. that I had heard he wasin very bad circumstances; that he was under a necessity of a fortuneto support his interest with the owners of the ship he commanded; thathis own part was not paid for, and if it was not paid quickly, hisowners would put him out of the ship, and his chief mate was likely tocommand it, who offered to buy that part which the captain had promisedto take.
I added, for I confess I was heartily piqued at the rogue, as I calledhim, that I had heard a rumour, too, that he had a wife alive atPlymouth, and another in the West Indies, a thing which they all knewwas not very uncommon for such kind of gentlemen.
This worked as we both desire it, for presently the young lady nextdoor, who had a father and mother that governed both her and herfortune, was shut up, and her father forbid him the house. Also in oneplace more where he went, the woman had the courage, however strange itwas, to say No; and he could try nowhere but he was reproached with hispride, and that he pretended not to give the women leave to inquireinto his character, and the like.
Well, by this time he began to be sensible of his mistake; and havingalarmed all the women on that side of the water, he went over toRatcliff, and got access to some of the ladies there; but though theyoung women there too were, according to the fate of the day, prettywilling to be asked, yet such was his ill-luck, that his characterfollowed him over the water and his good name was much the same thereas it was on our side; so that though he might have had wives enough,yet it did not happen among the women that had good fortunes, which waswhat he wanted.
But this was not all; she very ingeniously managed another thingherself, for she got a young gentleman, who as a relation, and wasindeed a married man, to come and visit her two or three times a weekin a very fine chariot and good liveries, and her two agents, and Ialso, presently spread a report all over, that this gentleman came tocourt her; that he was a gentleman of a #1000 a year, and that he wasfallen in love with her, and that she was going to her aunt's in thecity, because it was inconvenient for the gentleman to come to her withhis coach in Redriff, the streets being so narrow and difficult.
This took immediately. The captain was laughed at in all companies,and was ready to hang himself. He tried all the ways possible to comeat her again, and wrote the most passionate letters to her in theworld, excusing his former rashness; and in short, by greatapplication, obtained leave to wait on her again, as he said, to clearhis reputation.
At this meeting she had her full reve
nge of him; for she told him shewondered what he took her to be, that she should admit any man to atreaty of so much consequence as that to marriage, without inquiringvery well into his circumstances; that if he thought she was to behuffed into wedlock, and that she was in the same circumstances whichher neighbours might be in, viz. to take up with the first goodChristian that came, he was mistaken; that, in a word, his characterwas really bad, or he was very ill beholden to his neighbours; and thatunless he could clear up some points, in which she had justly beenprejudiced, she had no more to say to him, but to do herself justice,and give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was not afraid to sayNo, either to him or any man else.
With that she told him what she had heard, or rather raised herself bymy means, of his character; his not having paid for the part hepretended to own of the ship he commanded; of the resolution of hisowners to put him out of the command, and to put his mate in his stead;and of the scandal raised on