vis, to see how she liked me.
I met, as I was upon the stairs, our Rachel, who is the house-maid; and
she made me a low courtesy, and I found did not know me. So I smiled,
and went to the housekeeper's parlour; and there sat good Mrs. Jervis at
work, making a shift: and, would you believe it? she did not know me at
first; but rose up, and pulled off her spectacles; and said, Do you want
me, forsooth? I could not help laughing, and said, Hey-day! Mrs. Jervis,
what! don't you know me?--She stood all in amaze, and looked at me
from top to toe: Why, you surprise me, said she: What! Pamela thus
metamorphosed! How came this about?
As it happened, in stept my master; and my back being to him, he thought
it was a stranger speaking to Mrs. Jervis, and withdrew again: and did
not hear her ask, If his honour had any commands for her?--She turned me
about and about, and I shewed her all my dress, to my under-petticoat:
and she said, sitting down, Why, I am all in amaze, I must sit down.
What can all this mean? I told her, I had no clothes suitable to my
condition when I returned to my father's; and so it was better to begin
here, as I was soon to go away, that all my fellow-servants might see I
knew how to suit myself to the state I was returning to.
Well, said she, I never knew the like of thee. But this sad preparation
for going away (for now I see you are quite in earnest) is what I know
not how to get over. O my dear Pamela, how can I part with you!
My master rung in the back-parlour, and so I withdrew, and Mrs. Jervis
went to attend him. It seems, he said to her, I was coming in to let
you know, that I shall go to Lincolnshire, and possibly to my sister
Davers's, and be absent some weeks. But, pray, what pretty neat damsel
was with you? She says, she smiled, and asked, If his honour did not
know who it was? No, said he, I never saw her before. Farmer Nichols,
or Farmer Brady, have neither of them such a tight prim lass for a
daughter! have they?--Though I did not see her face neither, said he.
If your honour won't be angry, said she, I will introduce her into your
presence; for I think, says she, she outdoes our Pamela.
Now I did not thank her for this, as I told her afterwards, (for it
brought a great deal of trouble upon me, as well as crossness, as you
shall hear). That can't be, he was pleased to say. But if you can find
an excuse for it, let her come in.
At that she stept to me, and told me, I must go in with h
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