“La, Mr. Adams,” said Mrs. Slipslop, “do you think my lady will suffer any preambles about any such matter?  She is going to London very concisely, and I am confidous would not leave Joey behind on any account, for he is one of the genteelest young fellows you may see in a summer’s day; and I am confidous she would as soon think of parting with a pair of her grey mares, for she values herself on one as much as the other.  And why is Latin more necessitous for a footman than a gentleman?  I am confidous my lady would be angry with me for mentioning it, and I shall draw myself into no such delemy.”

So young Andrews went to London in attendance on Lady Booby, and became acquainted with the brethren of his profession.  They could not, however, teach him to game, swear, drink, nor any other genteel vice the town abounded with.  He applied most of his leisure hours to music, in which he greatly improved himself, so that he led the opinion of all the other footmen at an opera.  Though his morals remain entirely uncorrupted, he was at the same time smarter and genteeler than any of the beaus in town either in or out of livery.

At this time an accident happened, and this was no other than the death of Sir Thomas Booby, who left his disconsolate lady closely confined to her house.  During the first six days the poor lady admitted none but Mrs. Slipslop and three female friends, who made a party at cards; but on the seventh she ordered Joey, whom we shall hereafter call Joseph, to bring up her teakettle.

Lady Booby’s affection for her footman had for some time been a matter of gossip in the town, but it is certain that her innocent freedoms had made no impression on young Andrews.

Now, however, he thought my lady had become distracted with grief at her husband’s death, so strange was her conduct, and wrote to his sister Pamela on the subject.

If madam be mad, I shall not care for staying long in the family, so I heartily wish you could get me a place at some neighbouring gentleman’s.  I fancy I shall be discharged very soon, and the moment I am I shall return to my old master’s country seat, if it be only to see Parson Adams, who is the best man in the world.  London is a bad place, and there is so little good fellowship that the next-door neighbours don’t know one another.  Your loving brother, JOSEPH ANDREWS.

The sending of this letter was quickly followed by the discharge of the writer.  To Lady Booby’s open declarations of love, Joseph replied that a lady having no virtue was not a reason against his having any.

“I am out of patience!” cries the lady, “did ever mortal hear of a man’s virtue?  Will magistrates who punish lewdness, or parsons who preach against it, make any scruple of committing it?  And can a boy have the confidence to talk of his virtue?”

“Madam,” says Joseph, “that boy is the brother of Pamela, and would be ashamed that the chastity of his family, which is preserved in her, should be stained in him.  If there are such men as your ladyship mentions, I am sorry for it, and I wish they had an opportunity of reading my sister Pamela’s letters; nor do I doubt but such an example would amend them.”