Then my dear mother threw her arms about his neck, and said, with tears, “God’s will be done, my dear love!  All cannot be rich and happy.  I am contented, and had rather say, I have a poor honest husband, than a guilty rich one.  What signifies repining:  let the world go as it will, we shall have our length and our breadth at last.  And Providence, I doubt not, will be a better friend to our good girl here, because she is good, than we could be, if this had not happened,” pointing to me, who, then about eleven years old (for it was before my lady took me), sat weeping in the chimney corner, over a few dying embers of a fire, at their moving expressions.

I arose, and kissing both their hands, and blessing them, said, “And this length and breadth, my dear parents, will be, one day, all that the rich and the great can possess; and, it may be, their ungracious heirs will trample upon their ashes, and rejoice they are gone:  while such a poor girl as I, am honouring the memories of mine, who, in their good names, and good lessons, will have left me the best of portions.”

And then they both hugged me to their fond bosoms, by turns; and all three were filled with comfort in one another.

For a farther proof that honest poverty is not such a deplorable thing as some people imagine, let me ask, what pleasure can those over-happy persons know, who, from the luxury of their tastes, and their affluent circumstances, always eat before they are hungry, and drink before they are thirsty?  This may be illustrated by the instance of a certain eastern monarch, who, as I have read, marching at the head of a vast army, through a wide extended desert, which afforded neither river nor spring, for the first time, found himself (in common with his soldiers) overtaken by a craving thirst, which made him pant after a cup of water.  And when, after diligent search, one of his soldiers found a little dirty puddle, and carried him some of the filthy water in his nasty helmet, the monarch greedily swallowing it, cried out, that in all his life he never tasted so sweet a draught!

But when I talk or write of my worthy parents, how I run on!—­Excuse me, my good lady, and don’t think me, in this respect, too much like the cat in the fable, turned into a fine lady; for though I would never forget what I was, yet I would be thought to know how gratefully to enjoy my present happiness, as well with regard to my obligations to God, as to your dear brother.  But let me proceed to your ladyship’s third particular.

3.  And you cannot imagine.  Madam, how much you have set my heart at rest, when you say, that my dear Mr. B. gave me a just narrative of this affair with Miss Godfrey:  for when your ladyship desired to know how he had recounted that story, lest you should make a misunderstanding between us unawares, I knew not what to think.  I was afraid some blood had been shed on the occasion by him:  for the lady was ruined, and as to her, nothing could have happened worse.  The regard I have for Mr. B.’s future happiness, which, in my constant supplication for him in private, costs me many a tear, gave me great apprehensions, and not a little uneasiness.  But as your ladyship tells me that he gave me a just account, I am happy again.