1666. I say, “A Bargain," though without meaning to take the Crown; and fhe jumps into Bed in a Minute, and I begin at the Sermon on the Mount, and keep on and on, in more and more of a Monotone; but every Time I lookt up, I faw her Eyes wide open, agaze at the top of the Bed; and fo I go on and on, like a Bee humming over a Flower, till she shuts her Eyes; but, at last, when I think her off, having just got to Matthew, eleven, twentyeight, she fetches a deep figh, and fays, "I wish I could hear Him "faying fo to me.... Come, Anne, "Reft.' But, in fact, He does fo as emphatically in addreffing all "the weary and heavy-laden, as if “I heard Him articulating, 'Come, "Anne, come!"" 1680. POST SCRIPTUM. Spitalfields, 1680. A generous Mind finds even its juft Refentments languish and die away when their Object becomes the unrefifting prey of Death. Such is my Experience with regard to Betty Fisher, whofe ill Life hath N now 1680. now terminated, and from whom, confronted at the Bar of their great Judge, Father will, one Day, hear the Truth. As to my Stepmother, Time and Distance have had their foothing Effect on me even regarding her. She is down in Cheshire, among her own People; is a hale, hearty Woman yet, and will very likely outlive me. If fhe looked in on me this Moment, and faw me in this homely but decent Suit, fitting by my clear Coal-fire, in this little oakpanelled Room, with a clean, though coarse Cloth neatly laid on the Supper Table, with Covers for two, could fhe fneer at the Spouse of the Spitalfields Spitalfields Weaver? Belike fhe might, for Spight never wanted Food; but I would have her into the Nursery, fhew her the two fleeping Faces, and afk her, Did I need her Pity then? Betty's Death, calling up Memories of old Times, hath made me fomewhat cynical, I think. I cannot but call to Mind her many ill Turns. 'Twas fhortly after the Rupture of Anne's Match with John Herring. Poor Nan had overreckoned on her own Strength of Mind, when she promised Father to speak of him no more; and, after the first Fervour of Self-denial, be came 1680. 1680. came fo captious, that Father said |