Section 8

Thus the discourse ended; but it left the eldest brother quite confounded. He concluded his brother had made a full discovery, and he began to doubt whether I had been
A SICK-ROOM VISIT 41
it or not; but with all his management, he
"could not bring. it about to get at me. At last, he was so perplexed that he was quite desperate, and resolved he would see me whatever came of it. In order to this, he contrived it so, that one day after dinner, watching his eldest sister, till he could see her go upstairs, he runs after her. ‘Hark ye, sister,” says he, “where is this sick woman? May nota body see her?” ‘“Yes,’’ says the sister, “I believe you may; but let me go in first a little, and I'll tell you.” So she ran up to the door, and gave me notice, and presently called to him again. “Brother,” says she, ‘““you may come in if you please.” So in he came, just in the same kind of rant. “Well,” says he at the door, as he came in, “where’s this sick body that’s in love? How do ye do, Mrs. Betty?” I would have got up out of my chair, but was so weak I could not for a good while; and he saw it, and his sister too; and she said, “Come, do not strive to stand up; my brother desires no ceremony, especially now you are so weak.” “No, no, Mrs. Betty, pray sit still,” says he, and so sits himself down in a chair over against me, and appeared as if he was mighty merry.
He talked a deal of rambling stuff to his sister and to me; sometimes of one thing, sometimes another, on purpose to © amuse her, and every now and then would turn it upon the old story. “Poor Mrs. Betty,” says he, “it is a sad thing to be in love; why, it has reduced you sadly.” At last I spoke alittle. “I am glad to see you so merry, sir,” says I; “but I think the doctor might have found something better to do than to make his game of his patients. If I had been ill of no other distemper, I know the proverb too well to have let him come to me.” “What proverb?” says he. ‘“What—
Where love is the case, The doctor ’s an ass.
Is not that it, Mrs. Betty?” I smiled, and said nothing. “Nay,” says he, ‘ ‘I think the effect has proved it to be love; for it seems the doctor has done you little service; you mend very slowly, they say. I doubt there ’s somewhat in it, Mrs. Betty ; I doubt you are sick of the incurables.” I smiled, and said, “No, indeed, sir, that’s none of my distemper.” We had a deal of such discourse, and sometimes others
42 MOLL FLANDERS
that signified as little. By and by he asked me to sing them a song, at which I smiled, and said my singing days were over. At last he asked me if he should play upon his flute to me; his sister said, she believed my head could not bear it. I bowed, and said, “Pray, madam, do not hinder it; T love the flute very much.”’ ‘Then his sister said, ‘“‘ Well, do, then, brother.”’ With that he pulled out the key of his closet. ‘Dear sister,’ says he, “I am very lazy; do step and fetch my flute; it lies in such a drawer,’ naming a place where he was sure it was not, that she might be a little while a-looking for it.
As soon as she was gone, he related the whole story to me of the discourse his brother had about me, and his concern about it, which was the reason of his contriving this visit. I assured him I had never opened my mouth either to his brother or to anybody else. I told him the dreadful exigence I was in; that my love to him, and his offering to have me forget that affection,,and remove it to another, had thrown me down; and that I had a thousand times wished I might die rather than recover, and to have the same circum- stances to struggle with as I had before. I added that I foresaw that as soon as I was well I must quit the family, and that as for marrying his brother, I abhorred the thoughts of it after what had been my case with him, and that he might depend upon it I would never see his brother again upon that subject; that if he would break all his vows, and oaths, and ‘engagements with me, be that between his conscience and himself; but he should never be able to say that I, whom he had persuaded to call myself his wife, and who had given him the liberty to use me as a wifey was not as faithful to him as a wife ought to be, whatever he might be to me.
He was going to reply, and had said that he was sorry I could not be persuaded, and was a-going to say more, but he heard his sister a-coming, and so did I; and yet I forced ~ out these few words as a reply, that I could never be per- suaded to love one brother and marry the other. He shook his head, and said, “Then I am ruined,” meaning himself; and that moment his sister entered the room, and told him she could not find the flute. ‘‘Well,”’ says he merrily, “this laziness won’t do”; so he gets up, and goes himself to look for it, but comes back without it too; not but that he could
CONTINUED MELANCHOLY 43
have found it, but he had no mind to play; and, besides, the errand he sent his sister on was answered another way; for he only wanted to speak to me, which he had done, though not much to his satisfaction.
I had, however, a great deal of satisfaction in having spoken my mind to him in freedom, and with such an honest plainness, as I have related; and though it did not at all work the way I desired, that is to say, to oblige the person to me the more, yet it took from him all possibility of quitting me but by a downright breach of honour, and giving up all the faith of a gentleman, which he had-so often engaged by, never to abandon me, but to make me his wife as soon as he came to his estate.
It was not many weeks after this before I was about the house again, and began to grow well; but I continued melan- choly and retired, which amazed the whole family, except he that knew the reason of it; yet it was a great while before he took any notice of it, and I, as backward to speak as he, carried as respectfully to him, but never offered to speak a word that was particular of any kind whatsoever; and this continued for sixteen or seventeen weeks; so that, as I expected every day to be dismissed the family, on account of what distaste they had taken another way, in which I had no guilt, I expected to hear no more of this gentleman, after all his solemn vows, but to be ruined and abandoned.
At last I broke the way myself in the family for my removing; for being talking seriously with the old lady one day, about my own circumstances, and how my distemper had left a heaviness upon my spirits, the old lady said, “T am afraid, Betty, what I have said to you about my son has had some influence upon you, and that you are melan- choly on his account; pray, will you let me know how the matter stands with you both, if it may not be improper? For, as for Robin, he does nothing but rally and banter when I speak of it to him.” ‘Why, truly, madam,” said I, “that matter stands as I wish it did not, and I shall be very sincere with you in it, whatever befalls me. Mr. Robert has several times proposed marriage to me, which is what I had no ‘reason to expect, my poor circumstances considered; but I have always resisted him, and that perhaps in terms more’
_ positive than became me, considering the regard that I ought
4
44 MOLL FLANDERS
to have for every branch of your family; but,” said I, “madam, I could never so far forget my obligations to you and all your house, to offer to consent to a thing which I knew must needs be disobliging to you, and have positively told him that I would never entertain a thought of that kind unless I had your consent, and his father’s also, to whom I was bound by so many invincible obligations.”
“And is this possible, Mrs. Betty?” says the old lady. “Then you have been much juster to us than we have been to you; for we have all looked upon you as a kind of a snare to my son, and I had a proposal to make for your removing, for fear of it; but I had not yet mentioned it you, because I was afraid of grieving you too much, lest it should throw you down again; for we have a respect for you still, though not so much as to have it be the ruin of my son; but if it be as you say, we have all wronged you very much.”
“As to the truth of what I say, madam,” said I, “I refer to your son himself; if he will do me any justice, he must tell you the story just as I have told it.”
Away goes the old lady to her daughters and tells them the whole story, just as I had told it her; and they were surprised at it, you may be sure, as I believed they would be. One said she could never have thought it; another said Robin was a fool; a third said she would not believe a word of it, and she would warrant that Robin would tell the story another way. But the old lady, who was resolved to go to ‘the bottom of it before I could have the least opportunity of acquainting her son with what had passed, resolved, too, that she would talk with her son immediately, and to that purpose sent for him, for he was gone but to a lawyer’s house in the town, and upon her sending he returned immediately.
Upon his coming up to them, for they were all 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 that has forbid the banns,” “Forbid the banns! Who can that be?” “Even Mrs. Betty herself,’ says Robin.
ROBIN CROSS-EXAMINED 45
“How so?” says his mother. “Have you asked her the question, then?” “Yes, indeed, madam,” says Robin; “T 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 can’t 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; what does she bring?” “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 putin. “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; you know how to dispose of her out of his way.’ Robin was a little warmed with his sister’s rude- ness, but he was even with her presently. “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 make us believe he has seriously asked Mrs. Betty to marry him, and she has refused him.”
“Answer, and answer not, says Solomon,’ replied her brother. “When your brother had said that he had asked her no less than five times, and 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
46 MOLL FLANDERS
to let us into the mystery of it, what were those hard con- ditions?” ‘Yes, madam,” says Robin, “I had done it before now, if the teasers here had not worried me 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 the 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.”
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 heard this before, but I could not believe it; but if it is so, then we have all done Betty wrong, and she has behaved better than I expected.” “Nay,” says the eldest sister, “if it is so, she has acted handsomely indeed.” “I confess,” says the mother, “it was none of her fault, if he was enough fool to take a fancy to her; but to give such an answer to him, shows more respect to us 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.” “T’ll consider of that awhile,” says the mother; “I assure you, if there were not some other objections, this conduct of hers would go a great way to bring me to consent.” “I wish it would go quite through with it,” says Robin; “if you had
_as 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 fain have her?” “Really, madam,” says Robin, “I think ’tis hard you should question me again upon that head. I won’t say that I will have her. How can I solve that point, when you see I cannot have her with- out your consent? But this I will say, I am earnest, that I will never have anybody else, if I can help it. 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 in 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 —
gas
. COGENT ARGUMENTS 47
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.
You may easily believe, that when the plot was thus, as they thought, broke out, it was not so difficult or so dangerous for the elder brother, whom nobody suspected of anything, to have a freer access than before; nay, the mother, which was just as he wished, proposed it to him to talk with Mrs. Betty. “It may be, son,” said she, “you may see farther into the thing than I, and see if she has been so positive as Robin says she has been, or no.” This was as well as he could wish, and he, as it were, yielding to talk with me at his mother’s request, she brought me to him into her own chamber, told me her son had some business with me at her request, and then she left us together, and he shut the door after her.
He came back to me and took me in his arms, and kissed me very tenderly; but told me it was now come to that crisis, that I should make myself happy or miserable as long as I lived; that if I could not comply to his desire, we should both be ruined. Then he told me the whole story between Robin, as he called him, and his mother, and his sisters, and himself, as above. ‘And now, dear child,” says he, “considen, what it will be to marry a gentleman of a good family, in good circumstances, and with the consent of the whole house, and to enjoy all that the world can give you; and what, on the other hand, to be sunk into the dark circumstances of a woman that has lost her reputation; and that though I shall be a private friend to you while I live, yet as I shall be