d that if I was ruined (which was
the word I always used to her), she had ruined me; and she tormented
herself about it so much, that I was sometimes fain to comfort her and
myself too.

What Amy vexed herself at was, chiefly, that she should be surprised so
by the girl, as she called her; I mean surprised into a discovery of
herself to the girl; which indeed was a false step of Amy's, and so I
had often told her. But it was to no purpose to talk of that now, the
business was, how to get clear of the girl's suspicions, and of the girl
too, for it looked more threatening every day than other; and if I was
uneasy at what Amy had told me of her rambling and rattling to her
(Amy), I had a thousand times as much reason to be uneasy now, when she
had chopped upon me so unhappily as this; and not only had seen my face,
but knew too where I lived, what name I went by, and the like.

And I am not come to the worst of it yet neither, for a few days after
my friend the Quaker had made her visit, and excused me on the account
of indisposition, as if they had done it in over and above kindness,
because they had been told I was not well, they come both directly to my
lodgings to visit me: the captain's wife and my daughter (who she called
sister), and the captain, to show them the place; the captain only
brought them to the door, put them in, and went away upon some business.

Had not the kind Quaker, in a lucky moment, come running in before them,
they had not only clapped in upon me, in the parlour, as it had been a
surprise, but which would have been a thousand times worse, had seen Amy
with me; I think if that had happened, I had had no remedy but to take
the girl by herself, and have made myself known to her, which would have
been all distraction.

But the Quaker, a lucky creature to me, happened to see them come to the
door, before they rung the bell, and instead of going to let them in,
came running in with some confusion in her countenance, and told me who
was a-coming; at which Amy run first and I after her, and bid the Quaker
come up as soon as she had let them in.

I was going to bid her deny me, but it came into my thoughts, that
having been represented so much out of order, it would have looked very
odd; besides, I knew the honest Quaker, though she would do anything
else for me, would not lie for me, and it would have been hard to have
desired it of her.

After she had let them in, and brought them into the parlou