CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The history of Betty the chambermaid, and an account of what
occasioned the violent scene in the preceding chapter.
Betty, who was the occasion of all this hurry, had some good
qualities. She had good-nature, generosity, and compassion, but unfortunately,
her constitution was composed of those warm ingredients which, though the
purity of courts or nunneries might have happily controuled them, were by no
means able to endure the ticklish situation of a chambermaid at an inn; who is
daily liable to the solicitations of lovers of all complexions; to the
dangerous addresses of fine gentlemen of the army, who sometimes are obliged to
reside with them a whole year together; and, above all, are exposed to the
caresses of footmen, stage-coachmen, and drawers; all of whom employ the whole
artillery of kissing, flattering, bribing, and every other weapon which is to
be found in the whole armoury of love, against them.
Betty, who was but one-and-twenty, had now lived three years
in this dangerous situation, during which she had escaped pretty well. An
ensign of foot was the first person who made an impression on her heart; he did
indeed raise a flame in her which required the care of a surgeon to cool.
While she burnt for him, several others burnt for her.
Officers of the army, young gentlemen travelling the western circuit,
inoffensive squires, and some of graver character, were set a-fire by her
charms!
At length, having perfectly recovered the effects of her
first unhappy passion, she seemed to have vowed a state of perpetual chastity.
She was long deaf to all the sufferings of her lovers, till one day, at a
neighbouring fair, the rhetoric of John the hostler, with a new straw hat and a
pint of wine, made a second conquest over her.
She did not, however, feel any of those flames on this
occasion which had been the consequence of her former amour; nor, indeed, those
other ill effects which prudent young women very justly apprehend from too
absolute an indulgence to the pressing endearments of their lovers. This
latter, perhaps, was a little owing to her not being entirely constant to John,
with whom she permitted Tom Whipwell the stage-coachman, and now and then a handsome
young traveller, to share her favours.
Mr Tow-wouse had for some time cast the languishing eyes of
affection on this young maiden. He had laid hold on every opportunity of saying
tender things to her, squeezing her by the hand, and sometimes kissing her
lips; for, as the violence of his passion had considerably abated to Mrs
Tow-wouse, so, like water, which is stopt from its usual current in one place,
it naturally sought a vent in another. Mrs Tow-wouse is thought to have
perceived this abatement, and, probably, it added very little to the natural
sweetness of her temper; for though she was as true to her husband as the dial
to the sun, she was rather more desirous of being shone on, as being more
capable of feeling his warmth.
Ever since Joseph's arrival, Betty had conceived an
extraordinary liking to him, which discovered itself more and more as he grew
better and better; till that fatal evening, when, as she was warming his bed,
her passion grew to such a height, and so perfectly mastered both her modesty
and her reason, that, after many fruitless hints and sly insinuations, she at
last threw down the warming-pan, and, embracing him with great eagerness, swore
he was the handsomest creature she had ever seen.
Joseph, in great confusion, leapt from her, and told her he
was sorry to see a young woman cast off all regard to modesty; but she had gone
too far to recede, and grew so very indecent, that Joseph was obliged, contrary
to his inclination, to use some violence to her; and, taking her in his arms,
he shut her out of the room, and locked the door.
How ought man to rejoice that his chastity is always in his
own power; that, if he hath sufficient strength of mind, he hath always a
competent strength of body to defend himself, and cannot, like a poor weak
woman, be ravished against his will!
Betty was in the most violent agitation at this
disappointment. Rage and lust pulled her heart, as with two strings, two
different ways; one moment she thought of stabbing Joseph; the next, of taking
him in her arms, and devouring him with kisses; but the latter passion was far
more prevalent. Then she thought of revenging his refusal on herself; but,
whilst she was engaged in this meditation, happily death presented himself to
her in so many shapes, of drowning, hanging, poisoning, &c., that her
distracted mind could resolve on none. In this perturbation of spirit, it
accidentally occurred to her memory that her master's bed was not made; she
therefore went directly to his room, where he happened at that time to be
engaged at his bureau. As soon as she saw him, she attempted to retire; but he
called her back, and, taking her by the hand, squeezed her so tenderly, at the
same time whispering so many soft things into her ears, and then pressed her so
closely with his kisses, that the vanquished fair one, whose passions were
already raised, and which were not so whimsically capricious that one man only
could lay them, though, perhaps, she would have rather preferred that oneāthe
vanquished fair one quietly submitted, I say, to her master's will, who had
just attained the accomplishment of his bliss when Mrs Tow-wouse unexpectedly
entered the room, and caused all that confusion which we have before seen, and
which it is not necessary, at present, to take any farther notice of; since,
without the assistance of a single hint from us, every reader of any
speculation or experience, though not married himself, may easily conjecture
that it concluded with the discharge of Betty, the submission of Mr Tow-wouse,
with some things to be performed on his side by way of gratitude for his wife's
goodness in being reconciled to him, with many hearty promises never to offend
any more in the like manner; and, lastly, his quietly and contentedly bearing
to be reminded of his transgressions, as a kind of penance, once or twice a day
during the residue of his life.
Abhinav ji
09-Jun-2023 09:18 AM
Nice
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