ay and
night with good company and pleasant discourse, so I had two or three
old ladies that lay at me upon the subject of religion too. I was so
complaisant, that though I would not completely engage, yet I made no
scruple to be present at their mass, and to conform to all their
gestures as they showed me the pattern, but I would not come too cheap;
so that I only in the main encouraged them to expect that I would turn
Roman Catholic, if I was instructed in the Catholic doctrine as they
called it, and so the matter rested.

I stayed here about six weeks; and then my conductor led me back to a
country village, about six miles from Liverpool, where her brother (as
she called him) came to visit me in his own chariot, and in a very good
figure, with two footmen in a good livery; and the next thing was to
make love to me. As it had happened to me, one would think I could not
have been cheated, and indeed I thought so myself, having a safe card
at home, which I resolved not to quit unless I could mend myself very
much. However, in all appearance this brother was a match worth my
listening to, and the least his estate was valued at was #1000 a year,
but the sister said it was worth #1500 a year, and lay most of it in
Ireland.

I that was a great fortune, and passed for such, was above being asked
how much my estate was; and my false friend taking it upon a foolish
hearsay, had raised it from #500 to #5000, and by the time she came
into the country she called it #15,000. The Irishman, for such I
understood him to be, was stark mad at this bait; in short, he courted
me, made me presents, and ran in debt like a madman for the expenses of
his equipage and of his courtship. He had, to give him his due, the
appearance of an extraordinary fine gentleman; he was tall,
well-shaped, and had an extraordinary address; talked as naturally of
his park and his stables, of his horses, his gamekeepers, his woods,
his tenants, and his servants, as if we had been in the mansion-house,
and I had seen them all about me.

He never so much as asked me about my fortune or estate, but assured me
that when we came to Dublin he would jointure me in #600 a year good
land; and that we could enter into a deed of settlement or contract
here for the performance of it.

This was such language indeed as I had not been used to, and I was here
beaten out of all my measures; I had a she-devil in my bosom, every
hour telling me how great her brother