ng, and the rest I would have made up in my
affection to you, and tenderness of you, as long as I lived.'

This was very honest indeed, and I really believe he spoke as he
intended, and that he was a man that was as well qualified to make me
happy, as to his temper and behaviour, as any man ever was; but his
having no estate, and being run into debt on this ridiculous account in
the country, made all the prospect dismal and dreadful, and I knew not
what to say, or what to think of myself.

I told him it was very unhappy that so much love, and so much good
nature as I discovered in him, should be thus precipitated into misery;
that I saw nothing before us but ruin; for as to me, it was my
unhappiness that what little I had was not able to relieve us week, and
with that I pulled out a bank bill of #20 and eleven guineas, which I
told him I had saved out of my little income, and that by the account
that creature had given me of the way of living in that country, I
expected it would maintain me three or four years; that if it was taken
from me, I was left destitute, and he knew what the condition of a
woman among strangers must be, if she had no money in her pocket;
however, I told him, if he would take it, there it was.

He told me with a great concern, and I thought I saw tears stand in his
eyes, that he would not touch it; that he abhorred the thoughts of
stripping me and make me miserable; that, on the contrary, he had fifty
guineas left, which was all he had in the world, and he pulled it out
and threw it down on the table, bidding me take it, though he were to
starve for want of it.

I returned, with the same concern for him, that I could not bear to
hear him talk so; that, on the contrary, if he could propose any
probable method of living, I would do anything that became me on my
part, and that I would live as close and as narrow as he could desire.

He begged of me to talk no more at that rate, for it would make him
distracted; he said he was bred a gentleman, though he was reduced to a
low fortune, and that there was but one way left which he could think
of, and that would not do, unless I could answer him one question,
which, however, he said he would not press me to. I told him I would
answer it honestly; whether it would be to his satisfaction or not,
that I could not tell.

'Why, then, my dear, tell me plainly,' says he, 'will the little you
have keep us together in any figure, or in any station or plac