History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Page 152
Chapter ix.
Which treats of matters of a very different kind from those in thepreceding chapter.
In the evening Jones met his lady again, and a long conversation againensued between them: but as it consisted only of the same ordinaryoccurrences as before, we shall avoid mentioning particulars, which wedespair of rendering agreeable to the reader; unless he is one whosedevotion to the fair sex, like that of the papists to their saints,wants to be raised by the help of pictures. But I am so far fromdesiring to exhibit such pictures to the public, that I would wish todraw a curtain over those that have been lately set forth in certainFrench novels; very bungling copies of which have been presented ushere under the name of translations.
Jones grew still more and more impatient to see Sophia; and finding,after repeated interviews with Lady Bellaston, no likelihood ofobtaining this by her means (for, on the contrary, the lady began totreat even the mention of the name of Sophia with resentment), heresolved to try some other method. He made no doubt but that LadyBellaston knew where his angel was, so he thought it most likely thatsome of her servants should be acquainted with the same secret.Partridge therefore was employed to get acquainted with thoseservants, in order to fish this secret out of them.
Few situations can be imagined more uneasy than that to which his poormaster was at present reduced; for besides the difficulties he metwith in discovering Sophia, besides the fears he had of havingdisobliged her, and the assurances he had received from Lady Bellastonof the resolution which Sophia had taken against him, and of herhaving purposely concealed herself from him, which he had sufficientreason to believe might be true; he had still a difficulty to combatwhich it was not in the power of his mistress to remove, however kindher inclination might have been. This was the exposing of her to bedisinherited of all her father's estate, the almost inevitableconsequence of their coming together without a consent, which he hadno hopes of ever obtaining.
Add to all these the many obligations which Lady Bellaston, whoseviolent fondness we can no longer conceal, had heaped upon him; sothat by her means he was now become one of the best-dressed men abouttown; and was not only relieved from those ridiculous distresses wehave before mentioned, but was actually raised to a state of affluencebeyond what he had ever known.
Now, though there are many gentlemen who very well reconcile it totheir consciences to possess themselves of the whole fortune of awoman, without making her any kind of return; yet to a mind, theproprietor of which doth not deserved to be hanged, nothing is, Ibelieve, more irksome than to support love with gratitude only;especially where inclination pulls the heart a contrary way. Such wasthe unhappy case of Jones; for though the virtuous love he bore toSophia, and which left very little affection for any other woman, hadbeen entirely out of the question, he could never have been able tohave made any adequate return to the generous passion of this lady,who had indeed been once an object of desire, but was now entered atleast into the autumn of life, though she wore all the gaiety ofyouth, both in her dress and manner; nay, she contrived still tomaintain the roses in her cheeks; but these, like flowers forced outof season by art, had none of that lively blooming freshness withwhich Nature, at the proper time, bedecks her own productions. Shehad, besides, a certain imperfection, which renders some flowers,though very beautiful to the eye, very improper to be placed in awilderness of sweets, and what above all others is most disagreeableto the breath of love.
Though Jones saw all these discouragements on the one side, he felthis obligations full as strongly on the other; nor did he less plainlydiscern the ardent passion whence those obligations proceeded, theextreme violence of which if he failed to equal, he well knew the ladywould think him ungrateful; and, what is worse, he would have thoughthimself so. He knew the tacit consideration upon which all her favourswere conferred; and as his necessity obliged him to accept them, sohis honour, he concluded, forced him to pay the price. This thereforehe resolved to do, whatever misery it cost him, and to devote himselfto her, from that great principle of justice, by which the laws ofsome countries oblige a debtor, who is no otherwise capable ofdischarging his debt, to become the slave of his creditor.
While he was meditating on these matters, he received the followingnote from the lady:--
"A very foolish, but a very perverse accident hath happened since our last meeting, which makes it improper I should see you any more at the usual place. I will, if possible, contrive some other place by to-morrow. In the meantime, adieu."
This disappointment, perhaps, the reader may conclude was not verygreat; but if it was, he was quickly relieved; for in less than anhour afterwards another note was brought him from the same hand, whichcontained as follows:--
"I have altered my mind since I wrote; a change which, if you are no stranger to the tenderest of all passions, you will not wonder at. I am now resolved to see you this evening at my own house, whatever may be the consequence. Come to me exactly at seven; I dine abroad, but will be at home by that time. A day, I find, to those that sincerely love, seems longer than I imagined.
"If you should accidentally be a few moments before me, bid them show you into the drawing-room."
To confess the truth, Jones was less pleased with this last epistlethan he had been with the former, as he was prevented by it fromcomplying with the earnest entreaties of Mr Nightingale, with whom hehad now contracted much intimacy and friendship. These entreaties wereto go with that young gentleman and his company to a new play, whichwas to be acted that evening, and which a very large party had agreedto damn, from some dislike they had taken to the author, who was afriend to one of Mr Nightingale's acquaintance. And this sort of fun,our heroe, we are ashamed to confess, would willingly have preferredto the above kind appointment; but his honour got the better of hisinclination.
Before we attend him to this intended interview with the lady, wethink proper to account for both the preceding notes, as the readermay possibly be not a little surprized at the imprudence of LadyBellaston, in bringing her lover to the very house where her rival waslodged.
First, then, the mistress of the house where these lovers had hithertomet, and who had been for some years a pensioner to that lady, was nowbecome a methodist, and had that very morning waited upon herladyship, and after rebuking her very severely for her past life, hadpositively declared that she would, on no account, be instrumental incarrying on any of her affairs for the future.
The hurry of spirits into which this accident threw the lady made herdespair of possibly finding any other convenience to meet Jones thatevening; but as she began a little to recover from her uneasiness atthe disappointment, she set her thoughts to work, when luckily it cameinto her head to propose to Sophia to go to the play, which wasimmediately consented to, and a proper lady provided for hercompanion. Mrs Honour was likewise despatched with Mrs Etoff on thesame errand of pleasure; and thus her own house was left free for thesafe reception of Mr Jones, with whom she promised herself two orthree hours of uninterrupted conversation after her return from theplace where she dined, which was at a friend's house in a prettydistant part of the town, near her old place of assignation, where shehad engaged herself before she was well apprized of the revolutionthat had happened in the mind and morals of her late confidante.