ou that I am thoroughly honest, and should be
glad to serve you at any rate; and although I cannot possibly get a good
character from anybody at present, yet I defy the whole world to give me
an ill one, either in public or private life."

If I had had the eyes of Argus I should have seen with them all on this
occasion. I knew that this was my son, and one that, among all my
inquiry, I could never get any account of. The Quaker seeing my colour
come and go, and also tremble, said, "I verily believe thou art not
well; I hope this Kentish air, which was always reckoned aguish, does
not hurt thee?" "I am taken very sick of a sudden," said I; "so pray let
me go to our inn that I may go to my chamber." Isabel being called in,
she and the Quaker attended me there, leaving the young fellow with my
spouse. When I was got into my chamber I was seized with such a grief as
I had never known before; and flinging myself down upon the bed, burst
into a flood of tears, and soon after fainted away. Soon after, I came a
little to myself, and the Quaker begged of me to tell her what was the
cause of my sudden indisposition. "Nothing at all," says I, "as I know
of; but a sudden chilliness seized my blood, and that, joined to a
fainting of the spirits, made me ready to sink."

Presently after my husband came to see how I did, and finding me
somewhat better, he told me that he had a mind to hire the young man I
had left him with, for he believed he was honest and fit for our
service. "My dear," says I, "I did not mind him. I would desire you to
be cautious who we pick up on the road; but as I have the satisfaction
of hiring my maids, I shall never trouble myself with the men-servants,
that is wholly your province. However," added I (for I was very certain
he was my son, and was resolved to have him in my service, though it was
my interest to keep my husband off, in order to bring him on), "if you
like the fellow, I am not averse to your hiring one servant in England.
We are not obliged to trust him with much before we see his conduct,
and if he does not prove as you may expect, you may turn him off
whenever you please." "I believe," said my husband, "he has been
ingenuous in his relation to me; and as a man who has seen great variety
of life, and may have been the shuttlecock of fortune, the butt of envy,
and the mark of malice, I will hire him when he comes to me here anon,
as I have ordered him."

As I knew he was to be hired, I resolve